THE PLACE
The place
The place. To get to Maurac you have to cross this long strip of land at the north of Bordeaux, the Médoc. Stroll along the castle route and meander through its Grands Crus Classés. From Margaux to Pauillac via Saint-Julien. Just as you leave Saint-Estèphe, the majestic castles become rarer and you think it's time to turn around, you can see the vines of Maurac in the distance, placed on an archipelago of hills who look at the river.
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The past. With no aristocratic or bourgeois origins and far from the splendor of the great Bordeaux chateaux, the estate claims, on the contrary, simplicity and discretion. Resulting from the union of several plots belonging to cooperators, Chateau Maurac appears for the first time in the 1868 edition of Cocks and Féret.
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The present. Chateau Maurac has been run since 1998 by Claude Gaudin, who has undertaken with his team a long process to restructure the vineyard. Repositioning of grape varieties on good soils, harmonization of plantations. Today the property extends over approximately 15 hectares in the Haut-Médoc appellation, and on a few plots in the Saint-Estèphe appellation.
The team
Men and women, workers in the vineyard, they are indispensable; Without them, Maurac would not function. Abel, Francis, Nadege, Hubert.
They guarantee the quality of the grapes and carry out all the manual operations of the vegetative cycle throughout the year with care: pruning, suckering, stripping, trellising, thinning, all work intended to obtain quality grapes.
The philosophy
General vision. Always favor quality over quantity. Originally 18 hectares, the vineyard now covers 15 hectares. With the desire to remain small, the 3 hectares being restructured will soon be planted with fruit trees and a white grape variety.
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In the vineyard. Humility in front of nature, simplicity in our actions, respect for the soil and the living. In winter the soils are grassed, naturally or by plant cover chosen to bring in organic material. The rest of the year, the soils are worked on the surface.
With observation we carry out phytosanitary treatments as little as possible . No insecticide, no herbicide.
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In the cellar. As in the vineyard, the approach is minimally interventionist, without recourse to the latest technologies. We let the wines act. The vinification is minimalist with a reduced use of sulphur, in order to preserve the depth of the fruit. Long aging on fine lees for a minimum of 12 months.
