History
Château Saint Christoly
A dynasty passionate about the wine and land of Saint Christoly
Pierre MOREAU (MOUREAU), a thrifty blacksmith of Saint Christoly, bought some vines approximately in 1850 which are transmitted to his son François MOREAU. In turn, he developed this vineyard which he named Château Saint-Christoly, because of the position of the small cellar, at the heart of this charming Médoc village.
Two generations of women will succeed him:
- His daughter : Marie MOREAU, married to Jean PINET, in 1889, at Saint Christoly.
- His grand-daughter : Yvonne PINET married to Edouard HERAUD, in 1919 at Saint Christoly.
Together, they will help to guarantee the quality and reputation of Château Saint Christoly, on the site of Bordeaux (Trading). At that time, the wine shipped to Bordeaux through barges, left the port of Saint Christoly to reach the port of la Lune, and passed through Pauillac. The port of Saint-Christoly met with a certain growth, also supplying the surrounding villages, including Lesparre, current subprefecture.
The château Saint Christoly acquires a gold medal in 1924, at the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, then obtains its grade of Cru Bourgeois, in 1932.
Furthermore, Edouard and Yvonne will attach their Vineyard to the Castle by buying: Les Tourelles, in the 1950s.
They had two sons: Fernand and Paul. Each inherited a share of the wine property. Fernand, the eldest, is still the owner of Les Tourelles.
Paul HERAUD, the youngest sought to expand his domain. He married, in 1947, Paulette MANHES, daughter of a wine merchant in Lesparre and granddaughter of the owners of the Château Tour Saint Bonnet. By inheritance, some parcels of vines, majestically situated on the hindquarters of Saint Christoly expanded the small property.
Paul and Paulette bought the current cellars and had built one of the first fermenting rooms in Medoc cement vats, to accommodate their growing production. Paul, a strong supporter of small winemakers, worked for many years as an administrator within the Syndicat Viticole Médoc et Haut Médoc.
With his wife, they exploited all of their land by also growing cereal plants and raising milk cows. A dairy was built in the 1960s.
Paul, a councillor (from 1972 to 1984), then Mayor (from 1984 up to his death in 2006) of St. Christoly, invested himself with great zeal, to promote the image of his native village.
In 1979, Hervé HERAUD and his wife Martine CHOPY take over the operations, focusing solely on the vineyard. The area of the property increased from 11 hectares to 29 hectares. A new page was turned, the family business was being modernized. Manual harvesting is abandoned in 1982 when a first harvesting machine is purchased, in CUMA (Coopérative Utilitaire de Matériel Agricole (Utility Cooperative of Agricultural Equipment)). A battery of steel then stainless steel vats comes together to complement the cement fermenting room. The years from 1980 to 1990, long period of prosperity for all the vineyards of Bordeaux, see the soaring of sales prices of wine and the growth of vineyards.
In 2002, the inauguration of a cellar for maturing of wine in barrels marks a new stage. That same year, the Groupement Foncier Agricole HERAUD & daughters associates Martine and Hervé HERAUD to their two daughters Sandrine (Communications and Marketing) and Catherine (Cellar Master) HERAUD. This new generation of young women strives to combine Modernity, Quality and Femininity in order to give to the Château Saint Christoly a very personal touch. Since 2004 two Gold Medals : one from the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, the other from the Concours des Vignerons Indépendants de France crown their efforts.
An eighth generation (of girls) has come:
Cloé and Elise were born in 2001
Eulalie was born in 2003.