A Revolution Divided the Estate, an Auction Joined the Story — Camensac and the Hamburg Merchants

In the commune of Saint-Laurent-Médoc, west of Saint-Julien and set back from the road, there is said to lie a vineyard known as Château de Camensac. Camensac is a place name meaning “the path to the water” in Gascon, and the name already appears on the Belleyme map of 1767. A record from 1701 describes the property as follows — “there was a house and a vineyard, surrounded by marshland, adjoining the vineyards of Château La Tour Carnet and Château Lagrange.” The Médoc region is said to have undergone marsh-drainage works under Henri IV in the 16th century, yet the same record shows that, at least in the early 18th century, the land at Camensac was still set down as a place bordered by water.

The ownership of this land changed dramatically amid the turmoil of the French Revolution. Baroness de Budos, who had presided over the seigneury of Beychevelle, passed away, and her estate was divided. Camensac was put up for auction at this time, passing in 1799 into the hands of a man named Joseph Popp. The Popp family were Hanseatic merchants from Hamburg, one of the families that had settled in Bordeaux’s Chartrons district in 1707 for the purposes of trade. The land bearing the name “the path to the water” thus fell into the hands of merchants who had come from a distant northern port town.

The Day the Popp Family’s Terroir Was Recognized, 1855

The classification announced on April 18, 1855 recognized the Camensac terroir that the Popp family had tended, and placed the vineyard among the Fifth Growths of the Haut-Médoc. In little more than half a century, the vineyard of a merchant family that had arrived through an auction had come to be listed in Bordeaux’s official classification.

Five years later, in 1860, the head of the family, Bruno Popp, expanded the winery. He introduced a mobile wine press of a design that was new for its time, which later came into wider use throughout the Médoc. The family that had come from Hamburg thus also left its mark on the technical side of the estate.

A Quarter-Century of Changing Hands, and a Revival Half a Century in the Making

After the Popp family, once no one remained to carry on the management, ownership passed in 1887 to Naval Lieutenant Alphonse de Tournade and Antonia Garrigou. After the couple’s deaths, the Comte de Lahens acquired the estate in 1906, and in 1912 the Cuvelier brothers, Paul and Albert, who were also the owners of Château Le Crock, became the new owners. Over the course of a quarter-century, ownership changed hands one after another.

By the time the Forner brothers, Elyse and Henri, purchased the vineyard in 1964, however, Camensac was in a “sorry state.” The plots where wine had once been made are said to have been effectively abandoned. The Forner brothers were a family who ran a winery in Rioja, Spain, and are said to have brought that knowledge to bear on this estate. The rebuilding was carried out with the sustained support of the renowned oenologist Émile Peynaud.

The 2005 Transition, and Today

In 2005, Jean Merlaut and Céline Villars-Foubet acquired the château. Their aim, it is said, was to restore a reputation that had suffered from the estate’s absence in export markets. The vineyard once acquired at auction by a merchant family from Hamburg thus passed, this time, into the hands of owners committed to renewing its challenge in export markets.

In 2021, the estate obtained Level 3 HVE (Haute Valeur Environnementale) certification and launched an agroecology program. The second wine, La Closerie de Camensac, is made from lots selected from plots given the same care. The vineyard carrying the old place name “the path to the water” continues its work in the vines today, having passed through repeated turning points — revolution, immigrant merchants, abandonment, and revival.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• The place name means “the path to the water.” Even in the 1701 record, this land was still surrounded by marshland. The name Camensac, of Gascon origin, is an old place name that also appears on the Belleyme map of 1767.
• In the auction of an estate divided by the Revolution, a merchant family from Hamburg acquired the vineyard. In the auction that followed the division of the Beychevelle seigneurial estate, the Popp family, a family of Hanseatic merchants, purchased the land in 1799.
• By the time it was acquired in 1964, the vineyard was in a “sorry state” and effectively abandoned. The Forner brothers rebuilt the vineyard with the support of the renowned oenologist Émile Peynaud.