The Château des Capucins: a beautiful vineyard in the Lalande de Pomerol appellation

The Château des Capucins takes its name from the Capuchin monks, a minor Franciscan Order founded in the 16th century. This name is important because it is part of the long monastic tradition that has been at the origin of the vineyard’s influence since the Middle Ages. Indeed, wine is a pillar of Christian culture both for religious practice and for the income it brought to congregations.

At the start, the estate counted 10.20 ha. Subsequently, thanks to 2 additional leases, the total area reaches 15 ha of vines in AOC Lalande de Pomerol.

The vines are on average 50 years old. This is a guarantee of quality, because it is the old vines that produce the best grapes. The narrow rows (1.40 m) ensure good exploration of the soil and perfect sun exposure for the expression of this great terroir.

The buildings are implanted on a large plot of 10,000 m² located just at the northern entrance of the village of Lalande de Pomerol. Such a space is an asset for the new team, which will be able to consider all developments: additional technical installations, parking, wine tourism...

To date, the buildings consist of 3 units:

• A 500 m² winery that houses the vat room and the barrels. The tank room is sized to vinify 15 hectares. It consists of small tanks (70 hl on average) in cement and stainless steel. The advantage of these small capacities is to be able to carry out precise vinification, by plot, and to have at the end of fermentation a large range of aromas that blend into a beautiful whole. In addition, the winery is equipped with all the equipment for high-precision vinification (temperature control, micro-oxygenation, automatic sorting table, vertical press...). The barrel cellar has a capacity of 50 barrels, or 20% of the production. The objective is to bring a discreet woody note that will enrich the blend.
• A 150 m² building for equipment. This building will be removed to free up the central space and replaced by a 300 m² shed at the property boundary.
• A 250 m² house that is part of a wine tourism project. The “new house” has been completely renovated and redesigned to accommodate 4 guest rooms and a 50 m² multipurpose room. This investment is part of a global wine tourism project. It will be interesting to be able to welcome clients and investors to present our wines and our participatory financing project. Moreover, the proximity to the medieval village of Saint-Emilion is an asset that will ensure a good occupancy rate and additional income.

A high-performing team at the service of Château des Capucins

At the origin, Philippe Carretero and Fabien Guionneau, two winegrower friends, joined forces to launch the Château des Capucins project. They share having developed the wine estates created by their fathers and wanting to pass them on to their children.

The associates :

• Philippe Carretero : Philippe Carretero (63 years old) is a trained engineer-oenologist. He manages Château Rioublanc and oversees the vinification as well as taking charge of commercial development both on the French market and internationally.
• Fabien Guionneau : Fabien Guionneau (44 years old) is also a winegrower and, beyond that, he created a company providing vineyard work services. He is the one who, with the château team, carries out all the vineyard work.
• Paul Carretero : Paul Carretero (30 years old), software engineering graduate, manages all the digital aspects of the estate both for production (traceability) and for communication (websites, commercial prospecting...).
• Maxime Guionneau : Maxime Guionneau (22 years old), agricultural machinery technician, assists his father with all the vineyard work, especially mechanical tasks: driving tractors and straddle tractors, soil work, treatments...

The associates rely on a team of 10 permanent employees, the choice of excellence.

At Château des Capucins, all work is carried out internally without using external service providers. Nowadays, this is not so common in the vineyard. However, in organic farming, it is essential both for reasons of efficiency and consistency.

Here are the women and men who are building the future of the Capucins :

Rachel has been our secretary for over 20 years. With rare energy, she handles administrative, accounting, and commercial follow-up. Beyond that, she takes care of order preparations with unmatched speed and reliability.

Fanny is our latest recruit. Daughter of a winegrower and an agronomist engineer, she is our new cellar master, with the ambition to make the wines of Capucins and Rioublanc shine at the highest level !

Sigita, is a smile in the vineyard. She alone handles all the pruning at Capucins, which is already an achievement. The rest of the year, sometimes helped by seasonal workers, she provides all the manual care the vine needs: tying, debudding, lifting...

Jérôme and Christophe spend the whole beautiful season perched on a tractor or a straddle tractor for soil work, treatments, or trellis maintenance. In the off-season, they do mechanical maintenance and much more.

Jean-Pierre joined us in 2024 to work in the vines... but for now, he is "requisitioned" for the opening of the guest rooms where we benefit from his other talents for plastering, tiling, painting, parquet...

Aurélien, Damien, Kévin and Ludovic, in alphabetical order, valiantly complete the team. Several times a year, they walk the 300 kilometers of vineyard rows of our estates to provide all the care required by organic viticulture.

Organic farming: respect for people, the terroir... and the wine

Château Rioublanc has been fully organic since 2009. The technique is mastered and has contributed to the profitability of our wine estate. At the time, only 3% of the vineyard was certified organic. Since then, this proportion has risen to 20% and even the greatest crus are certified (Château Latour) or in the process of certification (Château Margaux...). Indeed, today, only organic certification can guarantee respect for people and the environment, notably by preserving water quality.

Producing organically is more difficult and more expensive than producing conventionally. However, societal demand remains strong. The barriers to adopting organic are linked to the additional costs incurred. But in the world of great wines, low yields are the norm and the cost gap between organic and conventional becomes limited.

At Château des Capucins, our choice of organic is based on our conviction of the relevance of the approach and on confidence in the skills of our team.

And for our investors, it is an additional advantage: since organic wines are valued better than conventional ones, an organic vineyard will also have more value.

The synergy between Château Rioublanc and Château des Capucins, an asset for both estates.

Before arriving at Lalande de Pomerol, Philippe and Fabien were already working together at Château Rioublanc. An estate of 50 ha in AOC Bordeaux (red and white) certified organic since 2009.

It is the same team that manages both estates. This brings many advantages :

• On the human level : years of working together have brought great trust between the four associates. The roles are perfectly distributed, which brings great efficiency both for daily tasks and for strategic decisions.
• On the technical level, the 15 years of organic experience at Rioublanc light the way for the Capucins. Moreover, the estates are close (14 km) and it is easy to go from one to the other.
• On the commercial level, Rioublanc’s address book opens many markets for the Capucins. Beyond that, the two estates benefit from pooling the cost of professional fairs and from increased sales through a more diversified offer..
• On the financial level, Rioublanc’s foundation served as a guarantee for the bank. Because the participatory financing concerns only the vineyard, and the SCEA needed one million euros to finance all the installations at Lalande de Pomerol.