What Has the Lion on the Second Wine's Label Been Watching from Atop the Gate? The Answer Lies in the History of an Estate Split in Three

Last time, when we traced the history of Latour's tower, we did not touch on the fact that another story lay sleeping just to its north. Across a single stream from Latour's vineyard, at the northernmost edge of the village of Saint-Julien, the core of an estate that was once a large single holding in the Médoc — Léoville — still remains today.

The label of that château's current second wine depicts a stone gate, with a lion standing atop it. This lion is not merely an imagined creature confined to the label. It is a statue that still stands atop a real stone gate at the northern edge of the vineyard. So what has that lion been watching? The answer lies in the story of how an estate once whole was split into three, and how one of those three came to bear this name — Château Léoville Las Cases.

An Estate That Began as One — But Did Not Remain So

The origins of Léoville date back to 1638. The earliest record is of a man named Jean de Moytié planting vines on this land. Later, around 1740, a man named Alexandre de Gasq inherited the property and gave it a new name. Through the eighteenth century the estate continued to expand, eventually growing into a vast single holding.

That a single vineyard could grow this large is already a story in itself. But the story of Léoville does not end here. If anything, this is where it truly begins.

Split in Three, Yet the Name "Léoville" Remained in the Classification

In the turmoil following the French Revolution, part of the estate passed into the hands of the Barton family and was separated off (the formal acquisition came in 1826). Then, in 1840, the remaining portion of the Léoville estate was divided between a brother and sister of the Las Cases family — the Marquis Pierre-Jean and his sister Jeanne. The brother inherited what had been the core of the original estate, and this became today's Château Léoville Las Cases. The sister Jeanne's share passed to her daughter, and it was the daughter's marriage to Baron Jean-Marie de Poyferré that brought the name "Poyferré" into the family line.

Here lies a little-known paradox. By 1855, when the classification for the Paris Exposition was drawn up, Léoville had already been divided into three. And yet the list of that year registered it under the single name "Léoville," and the three parcels linked to that name — today's Las Cases, Poyferré, and Barton — were together placed among the red wine Second Growths. The memory of a once-unified past classified a now-divided present as a single whole. That is the first paradox carved into the name Léoville.

The Lion on the Gate, and the Delon Family Today

At the northern edge of the estate, on the boundary with Latour, stands a stone gate with an arch roughly four meters high. Standing atop it is that lion. The lion depicted on the second wine's label — gazing toward us across the gate — is modeled on this actual statue.

The château came under its present ownership only after the turn of the twentieth century. Around 1900, a man named Théophile Skawinski acquired shares and began taking part in management. He was succeeded by his son-in-law André Delon, marking the beginning of ownership by the Delon family, who acquired a majority stake in the 1950s.

The current head of the estate is Jean-Hubert Delon. He left a career as a lawyer to join the family business, returning to the château in 1994. Following the death of his father, Michel Delon, in 2000, he took over management and continues to lead the estate today. In 2007, the current second wine, Le Petit Lion du Marquis de Las Cases — a name meaning "the little lion of the Marquis de Las Cases" — was introduced. The lion on the gate lives on in the name on the bottle.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• The parcels registered under the name "Léoville" in the 1855 Classification had already, by that time, been divided into what are today the three châteaux of Las Cases, Poyferré, and Barton. All three were nonetheless placed together among the red wine Second Growths.
• The stone gate standing at the northern edge of the vineyard, and the lion statue atop it, are real. They are the origin of the lion depicted on the label of the current second wine, Le Petit Lion.
• Clos du Marquis (since 1902) is a wine with a long history, but it is now an independent Saint-Julien AOC wine produced from different vineyards. The official second wine of Léoville Las Cases is Le Petit Lion du Marquis de Las Cases, introduced in 2007.