Discover the Château Branda
A great wine, it’s the combination of the terroir, the work, and the human.
Cadillac en Fronsadais
The history of Château Branda
Branda Castle was built in the 14ᵉ century on the remains of a Gallo-Roman villa. Coins, tile fragments and vases from the ancient period have been found here. In the Middle Ages, it was a barracks established to receive reserve troops. According to Raymond Guinaudie, the great historian of Libourne, the Château de Branda was the seat of a small vassal lordship of the powerful Viscounty of Fronsac, which became a duchy under the reign of Henri IV. It is a historical place: occupied by the armies of Edward III of England, Branda saw the battle of Carney take place at its feet, which left 1,500 dead around the fortress.
The area was liberated in 1453 during the Castillon battle, which marked the end the Hundred Years War of British and French.
The castle was transformed into a residency in the early 16th century by Antoine de Chanteloube and Catherine de Montferrand. Branda was attached to the Cadillac barony in 1599 by Louis de Gentilh, a rich parliamentarian.
At this period, Cadillac’s properties edified in 1502 and Branda was composed of only one entity of more than 500 arable hectares.
A rehabilitation of the castle started in the 1990’s by the owners to give back some attraction to the building and its medieval garden.
Clay-limestone and sandy-clay soils, stony clay on sandstones down of the hillside.
The vineyard
Appellations
The terroir
Geographic location: East of Bordeaux vineyard
The château Branda is located on the sunny hillsides of the Dordogne valley, 15 kilometers west of Saint-Emilion, in one of the most beautiful wine sites. Our wines’ typicality and richness come naturally from the diversity of our terroir and climate.
At Château Branda, we produce modern wines with a single character, which become more elegant and finer with time goes by.
The vines of Château Branda
The 27 hectares of vines has more than 40 years old, extended around a 14th century fortress, and split into red Bordeaux appellations (23 hectares composed of 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon) and white Bordeaux (4 hectares composed of Sauvignon Blanc).
The grape varieties are chosen according to the soil fertility and the rootstocks, in order to reveal the quintessence of each of our terroirs.
The works on the vines
The vine cultivating method is traditional, with a planting density of 5 000 vines per hectare, so a distance of 2 meters between the ranks and 1 meter between each vine. The trellising is horizontal with maintaining wires in order to mechanize most of the works, especially the grapes picking with a harvest machine.
The vines are pruned in double Guyot during winter. This operation requires all our attention because it expresses the grapes quality and yield per hectare. In spring and summer, our teams are rallied to male what we call the green works: debudding, leaf stripping, etc.
The winemaking
The mechanical harvests are realized from mid-September to mid-October, depending on the maturity of the parcels. To reveal the best expression of the fruit, the winemaking process is realized in a thermo-regulated tank, realizing an optimal control of the temperatures and smooth extractions.
After sorting and crushing, each lot is fermented and aged separately with the same care.