Château Faurie de Souchard

The back roads of St Emilion are filled with hidden gems. On the north-facing slopes of the St Emilion plateau, where solid limestone reluctantly gives way to green clay and the occasional streak of silt and sand, there are some interesting vineyard sites. As climate change becomes ever more apparent, Bordeaux may come to rely more and more on these once slightly disadvantaged vineyards, preferably planted with later-ripening varieties that can hold their own in the heat of a 21st- or 22nd-century summer.

On the north-facing slopes behind Château Soutard is one such viticultural jewel, this being Château Faurie de Souchard. Two centuries ago these two domaines were one, but the carving-off of some of these more northerly slopes in 1851 gave birth to this estate as well as Château Petit Faurie de Soutard. If you find the names of these two châteaux to be confusingly similar, and yet in some ways also annoyingly different, I know exactly how you feel. Why, for example, is one Souchard and not Soutard? And it doesn’t help that both have changed their name over the years, dropping or acquiring the Petit prefix as they see fit.

In this profile I intend to explore and make clear the history of Château Faurie de Souchard, before looking at the domaine today, finishing up as always with my tasting notes. Although, having said that, with the disappearance of this property from the St Emilion classification in 2022, and the presumed absorption of the vineyards into those of Château Dassault (which is in the same ownership), it may well be that we have already seen the end of Château Faurie de Souchard.

Much of the early history I detail below is shared with Château Soutard and Château Petit Faurie de Soutard, and thus it may already be familiar. If you wish to pick up the story at the moment this property was separated from the original estate, in 1851, turn to page 3, while for the details of the vineyards and winemaking today turn to page 4.

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