Our history
The Château Cantinot is primarily a family affair. After a life dedicated to the maritime world, Yann Bouscasse acquired in 2002, with his wife Florence, borned Vieljeux, the Château Cantinot, 50 km from Bordeaux, on the right bank. The man of the sea reveals himself in love with this land and the vines that he wants to accompany with passion to produce great wines.
The Château Cantinot has advantages to assert that allow to sublimate the qualities of the appellation:
• By its vines: on different plots very singular, allowing to isolate the style of each, including a plot of merlot which conceals a vein of the famous «blue clay», priceless geological treasure having a precious influence on the wines!
• By its blends, often surprising and more "typed Left Bank than Right Bank".
• By its methods of aging the wines since 2006 in order to extract only the finesse of the tannins of the wood and not to over-oak its wines.
• By its confidential cuvée: Orbite, Burgundy bottle, where winemaking is done in whole clusters in micro-winemakers on rotating frames... And only the best years.
In early 2020, Château Cantinot took a turn. Thanks to a fair transfer of knowledge from a very young age, Tristan Bouscasse, the youngest of the family of four children, succeeds his parents, with his companion Sophie Guillaumin-Grimaldi. The young generation is now launching the challenge of conversion into organic farming, effective from the 2023 vintage. A new chapter then opens for this beautiful domain. With Romain Moulineau, the cellar manager, a team of passionate young people – where women are very present (more than 60% of the team) – wants to continue the recognized quality of the wines, in line with the parents, while leaving itself the place to innovate and the freedom to develop, always more respectful of the environment: for exemple The Cantinot Castle becomes at this time a wildlife sanctuary.
«It is thanks to this new generation of winemakers that we see taking places everywhere around us that we will be able to restore the image of Bordeaux, qualitative and respectful of the environment», says Sophie.
First recognition: their own blends, for Château Capron 2018 and Rivière de Cantinot 2016, win gold medals in the competitions in which they are presented. Since then, they have created Orbite 2016, a confidential cuvée that has just won Decanter’s bronze medal as well as silver for Elle à Table. Even better, Andreas Larsson, World’s Best Sommelier 2007, awarded him the 93/100 mark, placing Orbite 1st of the Blaye wines tasted, and 7 on 700 Bordeaux wines. The great tasters and journalists Bettane & Desseauve are full of praise with this wine qualified, among other things, as «racé».
Let’s leave the last word to Tristan who runs this ship:
" We believe in a renewal for this already existing vineyard, with a recognized reputation and quality of wines. In the maritime sector we say “good luck”, that is the new wind for this beautiful vineyard. Heads full of ideas, passion full of heart and the desire to be able to apply them - it is the collective human adventure that will allow us to achieve all this”.
