Château Chasse-Spleen is a wine estate located in the Moulis-en-Médoc appellation, in the Médoc wine region of France. It’s renowned for producing wines of great quality, mainly from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot.
The boots in front of the château are especially loved, but I’ll tell you about them soon 😉
The château’s name, “Chasse-Spleen”, has a poetic origin. We’ll come to it a little further down the article, but I love using the phrase “chasing away the spleen” and the idea that tasting its wines brings real joy and drives away melancholy — always in moderation, of course.
In 1820, the estate was divided in two: one half went to M. Gressier and the other to his sister, Madame Castaing, who then gave rise, in 1863, to the name Chasse-Spleen.
Two origins are put forward for the name Chasse-Spleen. The first is attributed to Charles Baudelaire, referring to his collection “Les Fleurs du Mal”, which the Bordeaux painter Odilon Redon, a neighbour of the château, illustrated.
The second would be to the credit of Lord Byron, a great wine lover who, during a visit to Chasse-Spleen in 1821, is said to have remarked that this wine had no equal for chasing away dark thoughts.
The Castaing family remained owners until 1909, when the German merchant Segnitz took over in turn; the estate was then bought in 1920 by the Lahary family, before being sold on in 1976 to Jacques Merlaut. Céline Villars-Foubet, Jacques Merlaut’s granddaughter, has run Château Chasse-Spleen since 2000. Château Chasse-Spleen has been classified Grand Cru Exceptionnel in the Moulis appellation since 1932.
The land on which Chasse-Spleen stretches today has been planted with vines for more than 400 years.
The great witnesses of that era still keep watch — and it’s hard not to notice them at the corner of the property:
In 1820, Gressier Grand Poujeaux was one of the first Crus Bourgeois of the Médoc and, up to a certain point in time, one of the jewels of the Moulis appellation. Château Gressier Grand Poujeaux always belonged to the same family, the Saint Affrique/Gressiers, from its creation until its sale to its neighbours at Chasse-Spleen in 2003.
Walking through the vines, you can in fact spot this tribute and this echo of history, thanks to the names of certain plots on the estate.
If you have the chance to taste a wine from Château Chasse-Spleen, I encourage you to do so and discover for yourself the quality and beauty of its wines.
The estate produces 5 wines:
Château Chasse-Spleen
Oratoire de Chasse-Spleen, the second wine
Héritage de Chasse-Spleen, previously called Ermitage de Chasse-Spleen, in the Haut-Médoc appellation
Blanc de Chasse-Spleen
Château Gressier Grand Poujeaux
I looked for the most complete site at competitive prices to buy this wine, and here it is here
That said, the first wine remains exceptional and of great quality, so it will be hard to find below €35 a bottle. The second wines, however — also of very great quality — start at around €15.
In a future post I’ll take you inside the cellars and we’ll taste a little wine.
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