When Jacques Thienpont visited this estate in the Côtes de Castillon during the harvest of 2015, he was immediately struck by the great location and the stunning view, perched at the end of the limestone plateau that runs eastwards from Saint Emilion. A Belgian couple, Stéphane and Béatrice Goubau, had owned the château for a decade and named it after their family: “Château Goubau”. During this time they converted the estate to organic farming. It comprises 10 hectares of vineyards surrounded by woods and pastures; a varied and rich biotope, situated at a height of 100 m on the Saint Philippe d’Aiguilhe plateau,¬ the highest point of the Bordeaux region.

Jacques appointed Maxime Thienpont as manager and renamed the property L’Hêtre (The Beech), thus continuing the arboreal theme that Jacques has used for all his estates.

The vineyards enjoy good southeasterly exposure, a continuous gentle breeze and are divided between the limestone plateau and a mixture of clay, limestone and chalk soil slopes. The wines are fermented in concrete and oak vats and aged in a mixture of one-third new oak, one-third one year and one-third second year barrels. Although the Thienponts aged the 2015 vintage, the 2016 vintage was the first made entirely by the new owners and is therefore the first to carry the new name: L’Hêtre.