This Vineyard Bears the Mark of “Bordeaux Mixture,” the Remedy That Saved the World’s Vineyards — The Story of Fifth Growth Château Dauzac

On the outskirts of the village of Margaux, in the small commune of Labarde, stands a château with 49 hectares of vineyard: Château Dauzac. It was ranked a Fifth Growth in the 1855 classification. But to sum up this estate as simply “a Fifth Growth from Margaux” would leave too much untold.

The history page of the estate’s official website names a botanist among the figures associated with this property’s history: Alexis Millardet. The remedy he discovered in 1884 would go on to save vineyards across Europe from a certain disease. Yet the setting of that discovery is not the story of Dauzac’s vineyard alone — it is a shared history, inscribed together with a neighboring château.

A Legend from the Lionheart, and Land That Passed Through Many Hands

The earliest confirmed owner of this estate is a figure named Petrus d’Arsac, recorded in 1190. He is said to have been granted this land by Richard the Lionheart. In 1545, Benedictine monks recorded the land as a “Bourdieu.” Judged by the name alone, it was a modest beginning as farmland.

The tide turned in 1685, when the wine merchant Pierre Drouillard acquired the estate and is said to have expanded the vineyard’s scale and laid the foundations of the property. In a later era, the name of Jean-Baptiste Lynch, mayor of Bordeaux, is also said to be counted among the figures linked to this estate’s history. Then in 1855, under the Wiibrock family, this vineyard earned its place in the Médoc classification. The land’s masters changed again and again, but the vineyard itself endured.

1884: A Discovery Arrives at This Vineyard That Would Decide the Fate of Vineyards Everywhere

In the latter half of the 19th century, vineyards across France were threatened by a certain disease. It was the botanist Alexis Millardet who answered this crisis. In 1884 he discovered a remedy made by mixing copper sulfate with lime milk: “bouillie bordelaise,” or Bordeaux mixture. With the cooperation of the technical expert Ernest David, the results are said to have been published in 1885, and in France the treatment is still known today as the “Millardet-David process.”

This remedy is a landmark invention in the history of agricultural chemicals, said to have saved vineyards across Europe from a certain disease. While Millardet’s trials are said to have been conducted chiefly in the vineyard of this very Château Dauzac, the observation that sparked the discovery — that in October 1882, only the vines along the roadside had escaped the disease — is said to have occurred in the vineyard of the neighboring Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. In other words, the story of this discovery is not the sole property of Dauzac’s vineyard alone; it is a history passed down across two vineyards together.

From the Hands of an Insurer to the Hands of a Family — and the Face of an “Experimental Vineyard”

Toward the end of the 20th century, this estate, according to Wikipedia, is said to have come under the umbrella of the insurance company MAIF in 1989 — an era of corporate ownership. Then in 2020, the Roulleau family acquired Château Dauzac, and the estate returned to its origins as family-owned property.

Laurent Fortin, who has served as Directeur Général since 2013, has said that “innovation is the only way to move a company forward, and it is part of Château Dauzac’s DNA.” True to those words, this estate has carried out experiments uncommon among traditional classified châteaux. In 2017 it produced a 100% Vegan-certified wine, and in 2021 it released “Franc de Pied,” a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon made without rootstock. In 2024, it also opened the guest accommodation “La Chartreuse de Dauzac.” The “Emperor Yellow” label that has adorned its bottles since 1924 remains unchanged, even as what lies within continues to be renewed.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• In 1884, this vineyard left its mark on the history of agricultural chemistry. “Bordeaux mixture,” discovered by the botanist Alexis Millardet, is regarded as a great invention said to have saved vineyards across Europe from a certain disease.
• In 2017, it became the first classified château to receive Vegan certification. In 2021, it also released the first vintage of “Franc de Pied,” a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grown without rootstock.
• The estate’s recorded history reaches back to the era of the Lionheart. In 1190, a figure named Petrus d’Arsac — the earliest confirmed owner — is said to have been granted this land by Richard the Lionheart.