Chateau Marquis d'Alesme Becker

Château Marquis d'Alesme is an estate located in the Margaux appellation of the Médoc. It was classified as a third growth in the original 1855 Bordeaux Classification of the Médoc and today, produces a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant grand vin as well as a second wine.

Established by the Marquis d'Alesme in 1585, the estate was originally planted in 1616. The property was acquired in 1809 by the Dutch business man Jan Bekker Teerlink (1759-1832), commonly referred to as ‘Monsieur Becker’ (the misspelled first part of his double-barrelled family name), who attached his name to that of the estate, and for a period the wine was called simply "Becker" in Bordeaux.
In the early 20th Century, the property was bought by Comte Jean-Jules Théophile Chaix-d'Est-Ange, who had also inherited neighbouring Château Lascombes from his father, who intended to combine the two estates, but died in 1923 before carrying out the plan. The original Marquis d'Alesme château became offices for Lascombes, with the original château of Desmirail taking its place.

The estate saw a succession of owners, including English firm WH Chaplin & Co and the Zuger family, until it was sold in 2006 to petrochemical industry businessman Hubert Perrodo . Apparently with elaborate plans of combining several of his Margaux estates, no changes took place after Perrodo was killed in a skiing accident in late 2006. The estate is currently run by Nathalie Perrodo

The vineyards are characterized by gravel-rich soils mixed with sand, clay and limestone. The sun-exposed slopes are cooled by the nearby Gironde estuary, providing the perfect growing conditions for vines. Cabernet Sauvignon dominates the vineyards, closely followed by Merlot and smaller quantities of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. The estate employs sustainable viticultural techniques and takes an organic and biodynamic approach to vine-growing. Grapes are harvested by hand and carefully pressed, before being passed by a gravity flow system into fermentation tanks. Vinification is carried out batch-by-batch and the wine aged in French oak barrels in the cellar.