Château de Castelneau: uprooting 30 hectares of vines means uprooting 30 hectares of dreams and promises
Château de Castelneau in Saint-Léon in the Entre-Deux-Mers region has been producing wine since the 12th century. Today, the de Roquefeuil family is putting wine to one side in favour of tourism, the only way out of the crisis in winegrowing. Listen to Loïc de Roquefeuil's testimony
Click here to listen to the podcast on the ici.fr website
Loïc de Roquefeuil is still deeply moved when he talks about the uprooting of 30 hectares of vines on the Château de Castelneau estate in Saint-Léon in the Entre-Deux-Mers region. «I used to tell my wife Diane that every hectare planted was the future holiday she had dreamed of for so many years. We took her holidays away». The château produced up to 250,000 bottles, but the crisis did not spare this estate, whose origins date back to the 12th century. We had to pull out all the stops and turn to hospitality activities (weddings, seminars, holidays and wine tourism) to find the means to maintain this listed estate in this wine-growing region. An illustration of the resilience of winegrowers and the tourism and economic potential of the Gironde hinterland.
Castelneau Castle
As far back as the 11th century, the great cartulary of the Abbey of La Sauve-Majeure records an exchange of vines for woodland between the monks and the Lord of Castelneau. And for 9 generations, Loïc and Diane de Roquefeuil's family have been shaping the estate, day after day, to welcome the curious and lovers of wine and history. Just 3 km from the abbey of La Sauve-Majeure in the Entre-deux-Mers region, Château de Castelneau is a historic residence that reigns over a 100-hectare estate, fifteen of which are planted with vines. Château de Castelneau dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries and is listed as a historic monument.
The guests
- Loïc de Roquefeuil - Château de Castelneau at Saint-Léon de Bordeaux
- Romain Bertrand - Gironde Tourism and Bordeauxwinetrip : La Thomas Boudat, a cycle race through the vineyards and the Open doors in the Graves
- Florence Maffrand - La Cité Du Vin Conference« Water in your mouth »
Listen to the full podcast
Read the full article and listen to the podcast of the «Vinocité» programme dedicated to Château de Castelneau, click here.
