Chateau de l’Hospital

The Integrity Take

As part of a career change, Christine and Bruno Duhamel took over this estate in 1997, with the support of Mr. Guiraud for his oenological expertise and R. Vanrenterghem for his agronomic skills. Always staying true to their love of music, they have wines named after the Beatles and the Brand New Heavies.

Vineyards from the 1960s were purchased in 1997
Practiced organic farming since 2010, maintaining low yields and meticulous care for the vines
For 15 years, the vines have seen no chemical inputs and very little sulfur.

The Story

From the outset, Christine and Bruce Duhamel strive for a sustainable and environmentally friendly farming method prevailed, without the use of insecticides or herbicides.

After careers in business and archeology, we directed our mutual passion to wine, and wine production in 1997 when we acquired a small estate in the Bordeaux region whose owners were retiring without descendants. It is a small estate, its vineyard cultivated since the 1960s with respect for the environment and equipped with a large and functional winery.

Our wines are expressed through their organic cultivation, (certified by Qualisud since 2010), the extreme care brought to the vines, small yields, and manual harvesting. This attention to detail has allowed the creation of our original micro-cuvées in IGP Vin de pays de l’Atlantique, in natural red, such as our “BNH” and “Back in HSSR” and in natural white such as our “BBH” from 2018.

For more than 25 years now, we have been striving to reveal the particularities of this attractive clay silt terroir, scattered with veins of red gravel, enabling the Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Merlot to express their personality.

As for Côtes de Bourg, viticulture was established very early on, from the 2nd century, when the Romans introduced the ancestor of Cabernet Franc into the region. Its position between Narbonne Gaul, Rome and the British provinces, favored the growth of the vine. This center for wine shipments en route to England from the Plantagenêts and Eleanor of Aquitaine gave Bourg its nickname of “Bordeaux’s first goddaughter”. The vineyard continued to expand from the 15th to the 17th century, acquiring great notoriety. The name of Côtes de Bourg refers to the notion of hillsides. In addition to the 3900 hectares of red and white grape varieties, it is also the characteristics of the combination of soil types, quaternary silt, clay gravel, and clay-limestone, that contribute to the quality of the wine.