Château de Tracy, 2024 Update
I struggle to think of an estate in Pouilly-Fumé, or indeed anywhere along the length or breadth of the Loire Valley, with a more noble history than Château de Tracy. Its story can be traced back as far as the 14th century, and a direct bloodline can be drawn from the property’s current inhabitant, Juliette d’Estutt d’Assay, back to these noble forebears, the Stutt family, who originated from Laggan in Scotland.
Even more impressive given our vinous interests is that there is documented evidence of viticulture on the estate at this time, beginning in the 14th century. In other words, the first vines were planted here long before Isaac Newton (a distant relative of the d’Estutt de Tracy family, by marriage) dreamt up his laws of physics, long before Lafayette (another friend of the family) left to take up America’s revolutionary cause, before even Joan of Arc (who was instrumental in securing the coronation of Charles VII, in whose army Walter Stutt de Laggan served) experienced her divine visions.
As I said, I don’t think many estates can beat that sort of history.
Sadly, while the bloodline is intact, the story of viticulture on the estate is rather more fractured. At some point the vineyard was abandoned, and for centuries the property was without vines. It was only with the arrival of Jacques de Tracy in the late-19th century that the vineyard was reconstituted. It was his daughter Jacqueline, and her husband Alain d’Estutt d’Assay, who really developed the property though, transforming it into a modern viticultural estate. Today it is their daughter, Juliette, who runs the show.
