It was absent from the 18 April 1855 list. When and how was it added? — Château Cantemerle

Château Cantemerle is an estate in the Haut-Médoc AOC and a Fifth Growth (Cinquième Cru) in the 1855 Classification. Yet its name did not appear in the first classification list published on 18 April 1855. The useful question is not whether its quality was later reassessed, but how commercial routes and records shaped the basis on which the list was compiled.

| Official name | Château Cantemerle |

Why was the name absent from the 18 April list?

According to Cantemerle’s official history, the estate had exported barrels directly to the Netherlands for generations without passing through Bordeaux négociants. As a result, the price records consulted by Bordeaux négociants did not sufficiently show the estate’s trading activity.

This is not a statement about the quality of Cantemerle. It is an institutional-history point: the market records needed to appear in the 1855 list did not overlap with the route through which the wine was actually sold. Direct trade with the Netherlands did not mean that Cantemerle stood outside the period’s trading networks. It meant that the market route affected the form in which evidence was later preserved.

Returning to the trade in 1854 and gathering evidence

The official history names Caroline de Villeneuve-Durfort. In 1854, she returned Cantemerle to the traditional Bordeaux trade. She then gathered past prices, documents and testimony, organising material that demonstrated the estate’s trade and existence.

This effort should not be reduced to simple promotion. Price records were combined with documents and testimony to connect a history that had followed another route with the records held on the Bordeaux side. Cantemerle’s addition can therefore be read as the result of a change in commercial route together with the presentation of historical evidence.

The addition date was 16 September 1855

Cantemerle’s official history states that it was formally added as a Fifth Growth on 16 September 1855. It was therefore not present from the beginning of the list published on 18 April, but joined the classification later in the same year. The official material reviewed here directly confirms 16 September 1855; it does not describe the addition as taking place in 1856.

This history provides a way to read the 1855 Classification not as one immovable list, but as a record whose names could change when evidence was supplemented. It is separate from the 1973 promotion of Château Mouton Rothschild discussed in the series overview. Mouton is an example of a change in rank, whereas Cantemerle was added to the list as a Fifth Growth later in the same year.

A place connecting Macau and the river

Cantemerle’s official address is Macau. Its official history describes the location as strategic because it controlled a route linking Macau with the Garonne, and was associated with defence and the collection of tolls. Macau is therefore more than an address: it is a clue to the history of movement between the river and the interior.

Among the 18 Fifth Growths, three are classified in Haut-Médoc: Château Belgrave, Château de Camensac and Château Cantemerle. They are not in one place. Belgrave and Camensac are at Saint-Laurent-Médoc, while Cantemerle is at Macau; their addresses and estate identities are separate. The connection with the existing Château La Lagune and Château La Tour Carnet pages should likewise be treated as a classification link through Haut-Médoc, not as evidence of one property or a documented division.

Ownership from 1981 and current operation

Cantemerle’s official history states that the SMABTP group acquired the estate in 1981. The current official site says that SMA BTP has owned it since 1981 and that Laure Canu has led it since 2021. A new technical facility opened in 2025. These are records of ownership, operation and facility development; they are not a basis for inferring quality or market standing.

The official cellar material identifies Les Allées de Cantemerle as the second wine. It describes fruit centred on younger vines and says it represents about 30% of the total harvest. The point here is the name and the position given by the official source, not an invitation to buy or drink.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• Cantemerle was absent from the first list published on 18 April 1855; the official addition date is 16 September of the same year.
• The background includes direct export to the Netherlands, the shortage of Bordeaux négociant price records, and Caroline de Villeneuve-Durfort’s 1854 return to the traditional trade and collection of prices, documents and testimony.
• Its current address is Macau. The official sources record the 1981 acquisition by SMABTP, operation led by Laure Canu since 2021, and the second wine Les Allées de Cantemerle.