Gabarnac · Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux
Old-vine Sémillon, organic farming and an individual approach in Cadillac
Château Peybrun is one of the oldest wine estates in Cadillac, with records reaching back to 1543. For more than four centuries it remained in the same family, until Manu and Aurélie Rousselet bought the ten-hectare property in 2022.
Along with the vineyards and cellar, Manu and Aurélie inherited an unbottled 2020 red vintage made by the previous owner. Everything produced since, however, belongs firmly to their own chapter at Château Peybrun.
While Manu works the vineyard largely alone, the direction he and Aurélie are taking is already clear. Organic viticulture, deliberate oxidation in a dry Sémillon, carbonic maceration and an AOC Cadillac destined for extended barrel ageing, all reflect a willingness to make each wine on its own terms.
The vineyard occupies a south-west-facing hilltop at Gabarnac, overlooking the Garonne valley between Cadillac and Loupiac. Its soils are predominantly clay-limestone, with a gravel ridge across the Peybrun plateau – the name Peybrun means ‘brown stone’, a direct reference to the soil.
Their white vines are between 40 and 70 years old, with some Sémillon parcels older still. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are planted for the reds, and Sémillon leads the whites, accompanied in small amounts by Muscadelle and Sauvignon Gris.
Manu and Aurélie began converting the vineyard to organic viticulture as soon as they arrived, and it is now AB certified. Their aim is to encourage biodiversity and improve the vineyard’s resilience over the long term. Trees are being planted to provide habitats for birds, bats, butterflies and other wildlife, while plant infusions and preparations are used to support the vines. Treatments are kept to what Manu considers only necessary.
The same preference for minimal intervention continues in the cellar. Manu describes his approach as ‘raw’ rather than ‘natural’: intervening as little as possible while ensuring that the finished wines remain sound and stable.
That freedom is particularly apparent in the dry white, made from 100% old-vine Sémillon.
Half is vinified in sealed concrete vats filled to the top, preserving a cleaner, more direct expression of the fruit. The other half goes into partially filled barrels, where deliberate exposure to oxygen brings weight and almond-like complexity before the two components are blended.
Leaving space in the barrel is an unusual choice in Bordeaux, where barrels would normally be kept full. At Château Peybrun, the oxidative character is deliberate.
A lighter red made from Cabernet Franc takes another route. Carbonic maceration is used to emphasise freshness and acidity rather than extraction and tannin. For a more structured red, Manu returns to Merlot and Cabernet in a blend of approximately 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet, aged for three years in concrete and barrel.
Manu is taking an equally individual approach to the estate’s AOC Cadillac wines.
One wine is made entirely in concrete, with the emphasis on fruit, while a second is a much longer-term experiment. Seven barrels were purchased, with the intention of bottling one each year. Each successive release will therefore have spent longer in oak, with the final release having been barrel aged for ten years.
Only around 450 bottles are expected from each barrel. This project aims to show how the same wine develops through progressively longer periods of barrel ageing.
The range also includes rosé and Sauvage, the estate’s pétillant naturel, made without additions and released as Vin de France. Even the labels are Manu’s work: he designs them and writes the text himself, giving the wines a visual identity distinct from those produced under the previous ownership.
Manu and Aurélie took on old vines, a recognised terroir and several centuries of history when they bought Château Peybrun. But the interesting part of the story is what they are doing with them now.
Organic viticulture, concrete, carbonic maceration, deliberate oxidation and extended barrel ageing are not used simply for novelty. Each has a particular purpose, and the approach changes according to the wine.
There may be more than four centuries of history at Château Peybrun, but the wines being made there now are very clearly Manu and Aurélie’s own.
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