Why a Vineyard in the Village of Arsac Can Call Itself Margaux — Château du Tertre and the Hill That Speaks at 24 Meters

As we have seen throughout the Bordeaux Chateau Stories series, the 1855 Classification was never simply a system that ranked villages by reputation alone. The chateau we visit this time, Château du Tertre, carries that complexity written into its very address.

The chateau itself actually stands in the village of Arsac. Yet the appellation it claims is Margaux. The label reads Margaux, while its location on the map is Arsac — at first glance, an apparent contradiction. But this puzzle has an answer that turns out to be almost anticlimactically simple. The answer lies in an administrative division that shaped the very formation of the name Margaux itself.

A Hill 24 Meters High, and a Name That Spans Five Villages

Arsac is merely one of the villages that make up the Margaux appellation. The name Margaux is not the name of a single village but an institutional designation spanning several villages — Margaux, Cantenac, Arsac, Soussans, and Labarde (in 2017, the two villages of Margaux and Cantenac merged to form the village of Margaux-Cantenac). In other words, for a vineyard in the village of Arsac to claim the name Margaux is neither a special exception nor a contradiction. The system was simply designed that way from the start.

According to Château du Tertre’s official website, the estate’s vineyard sits atop one of the highest gravel hills within the Margaux appellation, reaching an elevation of roughly 24 meters. “Tertre” is a French word meaning a small hill, a raised landform. The name was not a metaphor — it simply named the ground underfoot as it was. Sheltered by pine forest, plots of sand and gravel cover this hill.

The Brother of Montaigne Who Married into This Land

The history of this land reaches back long before the Classification. The title of Lord of Arsac itself is said to trace its origin to the 12th century.

A turning point came in 1590. Jacquette d’Arsac, daughter of the then Lord of Arsac, Jean d’Arsac, married Thomas Eyquem de Montaigne, brother of the philosopher Michel de Montaigne, and thereby gained the lordship of Arsac and Castéra. Jean had another daughter, Marguerite d’Arsac. She is said to have married Étienne de La Boétie, Montaigne’s closest friend. It was an era in which the names of philosophy and friendship crossed paths in this land’s family tree.

Antoinette, daughter of Jacquette and Thomas, married Gabriel Darrelacq, a jurist of the Parlement of Bordeaux, and the estate passed to the Darrelacq family. Then, in the 17th century, the estate passed into the hands of the Ségur family — a lineage that held several chateaux, including Calon-Ségur, Phélan-Ségur, Latour, Mouton, and Lafite.

The Cornerstone Laid by a Businessman, and the Estate Today

In 1724, Pierre Mitchell, a businessman of Irish descent, purchased part of this land. The previous year, in 1723, he had founded Bordeaux’s first glassworks, and in 1725 he is said to have devised the jeroboam bottle, making him also known as the originator of the very shape of the Bordeaux wine bottle.

Around 1736, Mitchell laid the cornerstone of a chateau on this site. After his death, his wife and children purchased additional land in 1748 and 1749, completing a unified vineyard of 52 hectares. The chateau founded by a businessman thus grew into a single, consolidated estate.

Through the 19th and 20th centuries, it passed down under owners such as Henri de Vallade and Baron Henri de Koenigswarter. In 1956, after the great frost that struck the whole of Bordeaux, Philippe Capbern-Gasqueton, also the owner of Calon-Ségur, took charge of the vineyard, and from 1960 he carried out replanting.

In 1997, Eric and Marie-Louise Albada Jelgersma acquired the chateau. The gardens are the work of landscape designer Jacques Wirtz, who also designed the Carrousel Gardens in Paris and the Jubilee Gardens in London. Then, in January 2021, the Helfrich family took over management. Today, this hill produces, alongside its red wine, another red wine, Les Hauts du Tertre, and, since 2014, a white wine, Tertre Blanc. The chateau on the hill, with a history of more than 800 years, continues its journey still today.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• “Tertre” was not a metaphor — it was a measured fact. The estate stands on one of the highest gravel hills within the Margaux appellation, said to reach an elevation of roughly 24 meters.
• The brother of Montaigne became lord of this land. In 1590, Jacquette d’Arsac, daughter of the Lord of Arsac, married Thomas Eyquem de Montaigne, brother of the philosopher Michel de Montaigne, and the estate passed into the Montaigne family.
• The man who laid the cornerstone had founded Bordeaux’s first glassworks. The businessman Pierre Mitchell is said to have devised the jeroboam bottle in 1725, and around 1736 he built the chateau on this site.