Château Chasse-Spleen, Moulis-en-Médoc, 2015 | Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel

STORY BEHIND THE LABEL

Château Chasse-Spleen is one of the best-known crus bourgeois of the Médoc, and legend links it to literary admirers such as Charles Baudelaire and Lord Byron. Its vines, around 30 years old on average, grow in deep gravelly soil on the finest plots of the Grand Poujeaux hilltop.

The grapes are picked by hand and vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel and concrete tanks. The wine then spends 12 to 14 months in oak barrels in the traditional manner, with 40% of the barrels replaced each year. Before bottling at the château, it is fined with egg whites.

The estate did not appear in the 1855 classification, as its owner at the time, Madame Castaing, was still building up the vineyard after an inheritance. It later earned the rank of Grand Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in 1932, a status confirmed in the June 2003 revision.