Even Though the Name Changed Three Times, the Ferret on the Label Never Did — Château Belgrave

Over the past 300 years, this estate has changed its name three times. It began as Darrouilh, used as a hunting lodge, then passed into the holdings of the Brisson family, then took on the name of the physician Coutanceau, before finally settling, in the early twentieth century, on the name “Belgrave.” Yet amid this history of ever-changing owners and names, one thing alone has been carried down unchanged.

Even today, the label depicts a ferret, a small animal used in hunting. And the second wine bears the name of Diane, the goddess who presides over wild nature and protects wild animals. Names may have shifted, but this land has never once let go of its memory of the hunt.

The Land That Began as a Hunting Lodge

The plot of land on which the château now stands was once a tenant farm called Darrouilh (recorded in purchase documents also as Darrous). In the time of Louis XV, this land is said to have served as a hunting lodge set amid nature.

A turning point came in 1796. The Bordeaux wine merchant Joseph Brisson died, and the estate—comprising the three tenant farms of Petit Camensac, Sieujan, and Darrouilh—was divided among his heirs. The inheritance proceedings are said to have continued for roughly thirty years afterward. In Guillaume Lawton’s 1815 classification of Bordeaux wines, the estate is recorded under the name “Brisson,” located in Saint-Julien. This differs from today’s official location, but it is a historical fact that this is how it was recorded in the classification of the time.

The Physician and the Merchant: Thirty Years of Carrying the Name

In 1823, Godefroy Barthélemy Coutanceau, a physician at the Val-de-Grâce hospital, purchased the tenant farm of Darrous from the heirs of the Brisson family. From then until 1855, his name would attach to the estate in nearly every commercial classification.

In 1850, the Bordeaux merchant Bruno Devès built the present château on the site of the former hunting lodge. The winemaking outbuildings, cellars, and fermentation vats were also put in place at this time. Devès reorganized the estate and replanted vines on its gravelly soil. The following year, 1851, the name “Belgrave” was officially recorded in the land registry for the first time.

Yet in the 1855 classification, the estate was listed not under its present name of Belgrave, but classified as a Fifth Growth Grand Cru (Cinquième Cru) under the name “Coutanceau.” The new name in the land registry and the name inscribed in the classification had not yet come to match.

Though the Name Changed, the Ferret and the Goddess Remained

In 1898, Marcel Alibert purchased the estate and owned it for roughly the next thirty years. It was during his ownership, in the early twentieth century, that the name “Belgrave” was formally adopted—more than half a century after the name Coutanceau had first been attached to the estate. Alibert also contributed, in 1901, to the founding of the association of classified Médoc châteaux, serving as its secretary-general and later as vice president for twenty-five years.

In 1979, Maison Dourthe took over the property and set about renewing its aging winemaking facilities. Then, in 1987, the second wine “Diane de Belgrave” was established. The name was chosen in tribute to the estate’s historical connection to hunting. Diane is the Roman goddess who presides over wild nature and protects wild animals. In the name of this wine, made chiefly from younger vines, the memory of the land’s days as a hunting lodge still lives on.

That memory is inscribed on the label as well. The memory of the old hunting lodge is symbolized by the image of the ferret, a hunting animal, depicted there today. In 2007, the estate was renovated into a semi-underground ageing cellar equipped with temperature and humidity control, and in 2015 a new bottle bearing a historic coat of arms was introduced, reviving elements of the 1939 label design. From Darrouilh to Brisson, to Coutanceau, and then to Belgrave—though the name changed three times, the ferret and the goddess Diane have carried this land’s memory of the hunt down to the present day.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• The ferret on the label is a survivor of the memory of a hunting lodge. The land on which the château now stands was once a tenant farm called Darrouilh, used as a hunting lodge in the time of Louis XV. That memory still lives on in the image of the ferret, a hunting animal, depicted on the label today.
• The name “Belgrave” did not appear in the 1855 classification table. The name “Belgrave” was officially recorded in the land registry in 1851, but four years later, in the 1855 classification, the estate was listed as a Fifth Growth under the name “Coutanceau.”
• The name of the second wine was chosen in tribute to the goddess of the hunt. “Diane de Belgrave,” established in 1987, takes its name from Diane, the Roman goddess who presides over wild nature and protects wild animals. Here too is inscribed the memory of the hunt that this land never let go of.