At the start of the 18th Century, the King allowed the wealthiest bourgeoisie from Bordeaux to carry their swords and to become landowners. From 1720, Monsieur Gressier, an enterprising man, quickly set his sights on a gravel knoll dominating the paluses (marshes) by the road leading to Pauillac.

The hamlet on top of it is named Grand Poujeaux. He then built wine-producing joints and twenty years later a charterhouse was built for habitation during the wine-producing seasons.

The idea of a good-quality wine has formed in the Bordeaux wholesalers’ minds since the opening of northern Europe markets. The idea appealed to Monsieur Gressier who then embarked on the project and, as a result, his wine raised it’s profile and became famous.

In 1820, as a result of a joint ownership, the estate that primarily took its name both from the family sire and from the hamlet was split into two parts. The son kept Poujeaux Gressier. Lucrèce, the girl, who got married to a Castaing de Poujeaux, inherited a vineyard but not a name. Yet a name was needed for the 1863 London universal fair, where the wines were presented and Poujeaux-Castaing became another Poujeaux.

Rosa Ferrière, Lucrèce’s daughter-in-law and already a widow, remembered the legend told that Lord Byron was criss-crossing the southern Europe roads, which were prompt to support any likely revolutions, and stopped at Gressier. He was welcomed with open arms and given plenty to drink by the great grandfather. The great man would undoubtedly have praised him for the quality of his wine, known without parallel to ‘dispel the spleen’: he even owned the copyright of the word. Something was happening.

Rosa Ferrière was quite a character. A Protestant, she set up a school of this confession in the village of Moulis-en-Médoc . This was a political act during a time when the south-west part of France was a very radical socialist area and lauded absolute secularism. This institution would be attended by villagers until the sixth decade of the following century.

Her husband died and left her alone at the helm of the Château Castaing-Grand-Poujeaux, a quite beautiful farm whose reputation would benefit from her work, as certified by the wish of the 1863 London Exhibition Fair organizers to present a few vintages of her wine. They wanted to show the constancy of the wine’s production qualities, whose reputation had crossed the Channel: this being the privilege of the happy few.

She was also a pioneer in the marketing field. Her chosenr wines could not be given a name that was reminiscent of its neighbours’. Indeed, its was customary to create a brand that combined the name of the place with the name of the estate’s owner. The Grand-Poujeaux farms were no exception.

The London Exhibition proved it, the mood of the times was anglophilia. Politically speaking, there was the Entente Cordiale. Edward VII spent his life in Paris. Stylishness is English and sea bathing and mountain hikes were English ideas, etc. English words were entering French vocabulary. The word «spleen» for instance, which Beaudelaire had made a registered trademark in France.

Odilon Redon was still living in Bordeaux, he was barely 23 at the time and did not yet appear in the Pantheon of the symbolist artists. He was , however, already enjoying a regional recognition.

Rosa knew that Redon was often staying in Peyrelevade, the estate of his parents situated less than a league away. She might even have known that he had illustrated Les Fleurs du Mal. In the lounge of her house, where she had friends and artists gathered around her, Rosa’s intuition and the mood of the time soaked up by Odilon may well have sparked off the name of Chasse-Spleen, admirably chosen for it’s evocation and for its lasting impression.

In the XVIIIth century, a market for the great Bordeaux wines was listed in northern Europe. Hanseatic merchants from the German fringe began concentrating on the study of this market. So as to ensure the “sourcing”, new descendants were sent along the river Gironde. The initial trade relationship with the Port de la Lune on the one hand (Bordeaux’s nickname, describing the shape of the river Garonne flowing through the city) and its way of life on the other, grew into a more intimate relationship. A few merchants then decided to establish a line and bought estates.

The Segnitzs had a thriving business in Bremen, Germany. They had been trading Bordeaux wines for generations. In the early XXth century, their settlement in Bordeaux was made stronger and became permanent in 1912, when they purchased Château Chasse-Spleen from the Ferrière widow, an estate that her legatees did not wish to own. As a joke, it was said that the best way to lose money at the time was firstly because of women, secondly because of horses, and finally because of owning a chateau in the Médoc area.

Under their aegis, Chasse-Spleen gradually became better-known in northern Germany. Then two years later the war broke and Chasse-Spleen, being a possession belonging to the enemy, was therefore confiscated.

The Segnitzs, being true merchants to the core, made sure that they kept their prerogative on the Chasse-Spleen brand, and linked up with the new owners so as to have the wine redistributed in their country. Again, Chasse-Spleen started moving forward on this market. The Segnitzs became very close with the Laharys and the Merlauts. For a major part of last century, Hermann, a member of the Segnitz family, had been the person the Chasse-Spleen owners would prefer to deal with. He was much appreciated by everybody when he visited the estate, as he spoke a refined French full of lutherian solemnity.

At the turn of the XXth century, François Mauriac described with a great acuteness, the atmosphere of bourgeois families from the Landes (one of the French south-west departments) who reigned over thousands of hectares of maritime pines. Some were said to be able to go from Bordeaux to Spain without leaving their land. The Laharys were among them. Very much established in the Landes, they shared their family name with a village from the area.

Boasting some nice forestry earnings and looking for an agricultural diversification, Prosper Lahary got interested in an estate of good reputation, located in Moulis, that got caught in the Republic’s net as war damage because it belonged to some German citizens.

The estate was put up twice for auction, but Chasse-Spleen did not find a buyer. It was at the end of World War 1, and the economy was battered. Large fortunes had melted away, the wine industry and its hazards were considered a risky business. At last, Prosper set his mind to it and became the new owner in 1922. Wood and turpentine were good business affairs, that would subsidize the wine-producing farm, if need be. Chasse-Spleen was benefiting from this financial inflow and was not badly affected by uncertain incomes. The wine has remained on the European markets and enjoys good reputation thanks to its unchanging quality. The best illustration being the wine-cellar, the first-ever underground wine-cellar to be found in the Médoc, in 1964.

Until the early seventies, Chasse-Spleen remained unquestionably the top wine among the crus bourgeois. Besides, it was assessed as ‘exceptional’ in 1919 during a classification, a fact that alas will never be registered in the Journal Officiel. It was to be upheld at this level nearly 90 years later during the 2003 transient classification.

Soon after Prosper, there came Frank. Where the father only saw an investment, the son found a new passion. During half of last century, he did a marvellous job. When he was in command, Chasse-Spleen would steadily upset the 1855 classification. In 1977, drawn towards his native Landes to finally get some rest, he sold the Château to the Merlauts, who were better prepared to the changes of the wine market . He passed away 10 years later.

Jacques Merlaut was born in Bordeaux in 1911. He came from a lineage of magistrates, and he read law but he rapidly grew tired with it and felt that trading would bring him more excitement.

He graduated from HEC (the French school of management) in 1931, and straight away he started a company with his brother-in-law that bore the former’s name, as he was better known at the time for his success in trading Champagne in South America. First living in Sète, then in Bercy, both men worked in their role as « pinardiers», which consisted of transporting carts of wine from the South of Europe and North Africa to the masses of French consumers whose demand was driving wine production in those days.

Jacques Merlaut is known to have had a premonition very early on in his career about the potential commercial success of supermarkets. In the early seventies, he rapidly established himself as the gilt-edged spokesman for the supply of brand names to the evergrowing needs of the French public. These brand names meshed the French territory more and more tightly as time went by. The expansion of the firm was as conspicuous as the success of its many famous clients.

While the tastebuds of the market were getting more refined, Jacques took an interest in the great Bordeaux wines. In the early seventies, he purchased Mestrezat, then in 1978 he acquired Ginestet and Descas (he would eventually make over the latter to his son Denis). He then set his heart on other wine-producing French areas, purchasing the Rhodanienne company in the Rhône valley, Joseph Verdier in the Loire valley and Ropiteau in Burgundy, which he has sold since then. He also parted with Chantovent, situated in the Paris suburbs, thus deciding to put big business behind him. Attracted by wine production, he decided to purchase Château Chasse-Spleen, an exceptional Cru Bourgeois from Moulis in 1976 (despite being already 65 years old at the time), then Château Lagurgue, Cru Bourgeois from Margaux in 1978, and Haut Bages Liberal, fifth classified vineyard from Pauillac in 1982. Convinced of the good prospect of great wines, he ran three estates single-handedly, then decided to take on an extra one: Château Ferrière, third classified vineyard from Margaux in 1992. In 1996, his taste asserted itself with the acquisition of Château Citran, Cru Bourgeois from Haut-Médoc, and in the following year, Château Gruaud-Larose, second classified vineyard from Saint Julien.

With Jacques Merlaut being close to a hundred years old, his children Denis, Antoine, Jean and both his grand-daughters Claire and Céline, naturally took over and have been running the business ever since. Their business expanded further in 2000 with a Canadian joint-venture : Oosoyos Larose in Okanagan valley, a Bordeaux-like wine that is very successful in North America; also with Gressier Grand Poujeaux, Cru Bourgeois Supérieur from Moulis, in 2003 ; and finally in 2005 with Château de Camensac, fifth classified vineyard from haut-Médoc, the whole thing being sprinkled with Chinese and Moroccan adventures, and experimentation in Corbières.

450 hectares of classified, or assimilated, vineyard, nowadays represents the possessions of the Merlaut family in the Médoc, to which one should add the ultramarine territories. Jacques Merlaut carried on being informed by the best experts in the wine industry. His outstanding aura is enduring and he was still asked about his own opinions on a variety of situations that the wine market was going through. An inhabitant of the Landes, he was never far from a phone that was constantly ringing.

Jacques Merlaut died in december 2008 at the age of 97.

In 2000, Céline Villars, still an unknown protagonist within the wine world, takes command of Chasse-Spleen and has been running the property ever since. She is however the sister, the daughter and grand-daughter of great figures among the Bordeaux vineyard.

Prior to her premature demise, her mother Bernadette runs Château Chasse-Spleen. The estate’s reputation owes her alot. Céline’s sister, Claire, takes over and corroborates Chasse-Spleen’s international aura. And what can we say about her grand-father Jacques Merlaut, whose career within the wine world has been an unrivalled success! He is the founder of the Groupe Taillan, trade business and properties, with 450 hectares of crus classés and in the same category, in Médoc.

Very early on, Céline was in a quandary: wine or architecture?She eventually chose not to make a choice…So as to take time off and live her other passion, she hires her husband and father of their three sons, Jean-Pierre Foubet, to join her and take charge of the Château. He will be the managing director whereas she will be the chief executive.

Jean-Pierre is a communication man. He already exercises his job for various companies within the family group and other viticultural entities. Céline enjoys wine, its universe, its châteaux and its parks (again the scenery and the architecture). Céline loves wine and does not try to know why. There it is, this is her universe. She grew up in it, and remains very much attached to it.

When taking her Parisian husband aboard this superb adventure at the head of one of the Médoc most beautiful jewels, she could not have made him happier. Discovering the wine world and Bordeaux rather late, he found he had a true passion, introduced to that by his wife and in-laws.

In 2005, the duo brought their expertise to the management of Château Camensac, fifth cru classé, acquired jointly by Céline and her uncle Jean Merlaut, the owner of Château Gruaud Larose.

Of the four gravelly hilltops in the Moulis appellation, Chasse-Spleen was missing one. By joining forces with the vineyards of Château Brillette, Chasse-Spleen has gained the gravel buttonhole it was missing. The four gravelly hilltops combined with shallow clay on limestone on the western fringe of the appellation, which give Moulis its identity, have now been brought together under the Chasse-Spleen umbrella, to form a whole that reflects all the terroir identities of the AOC.
The 30 hectares of Brillette vineyards in production form a homogeneous group of fine gravelly soils with a few large plots of gravel with large pebbles. The surrounding ecosystem is rich in forest, marshland and meadows.
Éric Boissenot, consultant oenologist: ‘I know both terroirs well, having advised Brillette and Chasse-Spleen for a long time. Merging the two vineyards will certainly give the Chasse-Spleen wine an even more Médoc feel, with the proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon on deep gravel that it will gain.