Château Croizet-Bages
The Bages plateau, which lies between the towns of Pauillac, to the north, and St-Julien-Beychevelle, to the south, is named for the family that owned this land in the 16th century. The exact details are scant, as there is a distinct lack of documents pertaining to this era, only historical references published much later, during the 18th century.
Despite the lack of historical detail, the influence of the Bages family is still tenable today; just a short walk through the vineyards to the south of Pauillac is the village of Bages itself, situated on a gravelly rise which, although not of great altitude, in this coastal landscape of gently rolling gravel mounds affords as good a view over the Gironde as you are likely to find. Closely dotted around there are numerous châteaux and vineyards that clearly declare this rare vantage point as their home. The best known is surely Château Lynch-Bages, in the possession of the Cazes family, which now dominates the spot overlooking the outskirts of Pauillac with a huge winemaking facility. The family have also bankrolled the revitalisation of the villages of Bages, the most successful aspect of which is Café Lavinal, where many of the region’s proprietors, technical directors and estate managers – and, on occasion, a visiting wine critic – can be found enjoying lunch.
But there are others, including Château Haut-Bages-Libéral (located just north of Château Latour and Château Pichon Comtesse, but a large slice of the vines are on the Bages plateau), Château Cordeillan-Bages (perhaps better known as a swish hotel, than as a wine-producing estate) and the now defunct Château Haut-Bages-Averous. If that last one is less familiar, Haut-Bages-Averous was a minor property acquired by André Cazes in 1973 and subsumed into Château Lynch-Bages, the name serving as the second label for many years, before in 2008 it was changed to Echo de Lynch-Bages.
And then, of course, there is Château Croizet-Bages.
A historic property ranked as a fifth growth in the 1855 Classification of the Médoc, Croizet-Bages has enjoyed a somewhat chequered history. Now divorced from its original château, which when I last looked had been repurposed as a cultural centre, the estate has been in the possession of the Quié family for many years. For much of this time it has tended to fly under the radar, the wines never quite making the same impact as many of the property’s fifth-growth peers, the property seemingly overdue its Pontet-Canet-style renaissance.
But this is the modern era. As is customary, I will first look at the estate’s origins and history.
The Croizet Brothers
Although there were vines planted here as early as the 16th century, it was not until the first half of the 18th century that the land and vineyards came into the ownership of two brothers, Pierre and Bertrand Croizet. These brothers were local officials; Pierre was the eldest, and a clerk of the court, whereas Bertrand, born seven years after his brother, was a notary, although with time they both took on important roles in local government. With their acquisition they brought together the vineyards and land to form a rather handsome estate named Croizet, a forerunner of today’s Croizet-Bages.
