A trip with my dog to Château Cantenac winery near Saint-Émilion

This March, I took a trip with my dog to visit the Château Cantenac estate, a family owned winery near the town of Saint-Émilion. It is located north-east of Bordeaux in the Libournaise region of France.

If you are looking to visit the winery, I can recommend the hotel that we stayed at. From there, it is just a short walk through the vineyards to reach Château Cantenac.

Find out all the details of our winery visit below.

THE ESTATE

The Château Cantenac estate holds 19 hectares of vines, most of which are of the Merlot grape variety. They also grow some Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes which is used for blending the final product.

A lot of the farming is done by hand. During March, the branches of the vines are cut back, leaving just 1-2 branches with around 8-10 buds each to ensure the greatest quality. As the vines grow, they are tied up to metal strings to protect them from the wind. Also by hand. Finally around September, the harvest is done by hand as well.

Did you know that the vines have to be replaced after around 70 years? Apparently, the yield drops quite significantly after that. When walking back to the hotel after the tour, I saw some that were currently being replaced. Very interesting!

THE VISIT

During the visit, you can learn a lot about how to make wine. The guide explained that quite often tourists come with the idea of investing in a vineyard, but once they learn how complex it is they are no longer interested. Personally, I found it quite fascinating to learn about all the details of the wine making process and I will share some tidbits with you.

After the initial harvest, the wine-to-be gets stored in these large tanks. This is where the juice rests together with the grape skins and the seeds. When pressing the juice, they have to be careful not to crush the seeds, so as not to make the wine bitter. The tanks are still the original ones that have been used since the winery was founded. To clean the tanks, someone has to climb inside.

After some further processing, eventually the wine gets to rest in barrels. During the tour, I was surprised to learn that the barrels actually have to be cleaned every few weeks. I have visited other wineries before but never heard about this step. They actually take the wine out, clean the barrel and then put the wine back in.

At Château Cantenac, they have around 360 barrels in storage, which holds the wine from two harvests. Each barrel holds 225 litres of wine, which makes about 300 bottles. Quick maths says: That’s a lot of wine!

Each of the barrels is hand-made, mostly from French oak. It costs around 800-1000 EUR and is sold after a few years of use because the wood has absorbed too much moisture. The barrels are then reused by other producers to make whiskey, rum or other spirits. Some are also turned into furniture.

THE WINE TASTING

The wine tasting was held in the beautiful château itself. The magnolia tree just in front is actually the oldest part of the vineyard, it has been here even before the château was built.

This winery mostly produces red wines, but recently they have also started experimenting with some white wine and rose. I got to try four different red wines, although three of them were the same just from different years. Surprisingly, they still tasted quite different. The guide explained that it depends a lot on the weather of the year how the wine turns out.

With the wine, different cheeses and some bread was served. As you can imagine, my dog was very interested to try the cheese as well. Overall, it was a very enjoyable setting.

HOW LONG IT TAKES AND WHO IT’S FOR

We spent around an hour and a half on the Château Cantenac estate, enjoying the tour and the wine and cheese tasting. There was not a lot of walking involved and the facilities are fully wheelchair accessible. If you are interested to learn about the wine making process, this tour is for you!

BONUS TIP

The town of Saint-Émilion is very much worth a visit as well. It is about a 50 minute walk from the winery, but just a short drive away. We went there in 2022 and very much enjoyed walking around the cute little streets. You can also find remnants of a perimeter wall from the 13th century. Make sure you don’t miss the views from the Belltower Square (La place du Clocher) – the panorama of the St-Émilion region is gorgeous.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you enjoy a good red wine, this is a nice place to stop for a visit with your dog. You can learn a lot about the wine making process and enjoy a beautiful stroll through the vineyards!