A land, a history

The name “Fombrauge” actually comes from two words: fons brogiera, which means: source surrounded by heather and bushes.
These sources gave their name to Fombrauge and still exist today, which is why you can find a listed wash-house at the heart of our vineyards.

The history of Fombrauge is linked to three families: the Canolles, the Dumas, and the Taffards.

The first written mention of Château Fombrauge dates back to the end of the Hundred Years War, which ended in 1453 in Castillon La Bataille, a few miles away.

The Canolles

It was a squire, Jacques de Canolle, who acquired the property in 1466 and proclaimed himself Lord of Fombrauge. His grandson, Pierre de Canolle, succeeded him around 1575. He was a great man, a bourgeois of Bordeaux, and was knighted for his service as Treasurer of France. Château Fombrauge remained in the hands of the Canolle family for several decades. Historians believe that the ancestor of the Canolle family (or Knolles) was Sir Robert Knolles, a famous English captain and opponent of Duguesclin, Grand Seneschal of Guyenne, who died in 1407.
Knolles took care of his land and it was at that time that the first vines appeared.
In 1691, Marie Anne de Canolle offered the domain as a dowry to her husband, Jacques Dumas.

The Dumas

At the end of the seventeenth century, Fombrauge belonged to the Dumas de Fombrauge family.
Councillor Dumas was an active member of the "Pépinière", a physiocrats’ club in Bordeaux (disciples of Dr. François Quesnay’s theses, based on knowledge and respect for "natural laws" and extolling the virtues of agriculture), which was founded in1760 and became a practical school for agriculture. The vineyard of the current Château Fombrauge was therefore in a position to benefit from all the necessary know-how required to ensure its development.
Dumas helped them to implement the first quality winemaking in the domain. They often used and experimented the latest techniques in terms of grape variety selection, vineyard work, plot selection and vinification, and their success was to be exceptional.
In 1794, Jacques Dumas’s descendant was guillotined and the domain fell into the hands of the nation until 1808, when the four children of the deceased took it over.

It is this empiricism that gave birth to the concept of the Great Wines of St. Emilion. The quest to assess and compare the aging potential of wines produced from different plots was quite remarkable.

The Taffards

During the nineteenth century, Fombrauge became Ferdinand de Taffard’s property. Thanks to his work, the vintage won the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867.
In 1987, the Château was sold to a major Danish trading house.

For 12 years, the wines were sold exclusively on the Scandinavian market, and unfortunately fell into oblivion on the French market.

It was in 1999 that Mr. Magrez bought it back.