Its Classified Name Survived, but for About Forty Years the Wine Was Made at Another Château. Where Was Ferrière?

Château Ferrière stands in the centre of Margaux and entered the Third Growths in 1855. Yet for much of the later twentieth century, wine carrying its name was rarely seen. The vineyard had not disappeared, nor had the classification been lost. Under a lease dating from 1952, its grapes were being vinified at the neighbouring Château Lascombes.

The turning points were a change of ownership in 1988 and the end of the lease in 1992. Ferrière was acquired four years before it could resume independent operation. That gap explains how an old family name returned to public view as a separately run château.

A Maritime Broker's Surname Becomes the Name of the Estate

According to the official history, Gabriel Ferrière, a figure in maritime brokerage, acquired a Margaux vineyard in the late seventeenth century and gave it his surname. Successive generations retained the name through the period when the estate entered the Third Growths in 1855. The current official introduction compresses this family story as "almost 300 years," while specialist history records a sale to Armand Feuillerat in 1914. This page therefore keeps the documented acquisition period and sale date distinct.

Feuillerat also owned Château Marquis de Terme in Margaux. His daughter, Madame Durand, is recorded as succeeding him at Ferrière in 1921. Owners changed, but the surname attached in the late seventeenth century and the classified name from 1855 endured. The important distinction is that continuity of name and continuity of independent daily operation did not always follow the same path.

The sale in 1914 ended the Ferrière family's period, but it did not end the château name or its classification. After subsequent inheritance, the owners chose to lease rather than dispose of the vineyard, preserving the land as a unit. The work that followed cultivation and the use of production facilities, however, became integrated into another château. A name could therefore continue in the historical record while the place of production moved elsewhere. This twentieth-century separation of Médoc ownership and operation can be seen at Ferrière.

1952 to 1992: The Name Remained, but Operation Moved Elsewhere

In 1952, the heirs leased the vineyard to Château Lascombes. The château history published by La Revue du vin de France says that Ferrière's wine was made at Lascombes for roughly the next forty years. Its classified name remained, but the integrated operation of vineyard and cellar at Ferrière ceased. The lease helps explain why bottles from the later twentieth century are difficult to find.

Jacques Merlaut acquired Ferrière in 1988. Acquisition did not, however, return the operation immediately. The lease relationship dating from 1952 was terminated and operation returned to the property in 1992. French company records likewise show the land acquisition in 1988 and a Lascombes-related asset entry in 1992. The four-year difference was not merely a renovation interval: ownership and the right to operate the vineyard were moving on separate timetables.

In 1992 Bernadette Reopened the Door, and Claire Continued

In 1992, Jacques's daughter Bernadette Merlaut-Villars terminated the lease and resumed operations at Ferrière. She equipped the winemaking facilities and reconnected work in the vineyard with work at the château. After losing both parents in an accident that year, her daughter Claire Villars-Lurton left her studies, returned to Bordeaux, and joined her grandfather in continuing Bernadette's work. Following the division of family properties in 2000, Claire has led Ferrière as its owner.

Ferrière's restart therefore cannot be reduced to one date. The year 1988 marks acquisition; 1992 marks the end of the lease and the return of operation to the property; and 2000 marks Claire's direct leadership as owner after the division of family assets. Keeping Bernadette's short reconstruction period distinct from the era continued by Claire also prevents the succession from becoming an oversimplified story in which the daughter suddenly inherited everything at once.

Current official material gives the vineyard as twenty-four hectares. Its size need not be turned into a claim about rank or quality. Historically, what matters is the return of the leased land to a single operating unit. Official material records organic certification in 2015, Demeter biodynamic certification in 2018, and Biodyvin certification in 2019. The current second wine is Les Remparts de Ferrière. A name meaning Ferrière's ramparts also speaks to an estate whose operational boundaries became whole again.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• From 1952, the vineyard was leased to Château Lascombes for roughly forty years. The classification remained, but independent operation at Ferrière did not resume until 1992.
• The Merlaut family acquired the estate in 1988, while operation resumed in 1992. Transfer of ownership and termination of the lease did not occur in the same year.
• Claire Villars-Lurton continued the work begun by her mother, Bernadette. Current official material identifies Claire as the owner.