Château Doisy-Dubroca

On 11 April 1809 Jean-Jacques-Emmanuel Daëne, a Bordeaux négociant, bought Doisy from his brother-in-law Bernard Duboscq. Daëne's three sons, Georges, Edmond and Stanislas, inherited Doisy in 1875, and on 9 December 1875 they ceded part of it to the brothers Marcel and Camille Dubroca, négociants in Cérons who were successively mayors of the village. The old Doisy estate was eventually split into Daëne, Védrines and Dubroca. In 1880 Marcel Dubroca's daughter Marguerite married Henri Gounouilhou (1853-1913), director of the newspaper Petite Gironde, who bought Château Climens in 1885; after Marcel Dubroca, Doisy-Dubroca passed to the heirs of Henri Gounouilhou. In 1958 Pierre Dubourdieu, owner of Doisy-Daëne, bought part of Doisy-Dubroca. In 1971 Lucien Lurton bought Château Climens and, at the same time, Château Doisy-Dubroca; his son Louis Lurton took over the property in 1992, when the cellars were renovated. The Lurton family pulled up the vines in 2012, when the vineyard amounted to 3.08 hectares. In 2014 Denis Dubourdieu bought Doisy-Dubroca from Louis Lurton and joined it to Château Doisy-Daëne, the neighbouring 1855 cru classé that Georges Dubourdieu had bought in 1924. The estate also contained 1,000 square metres of 18th- and 19th-century winemaking buildings and a small château. The Dubourdieu family replanted the entire vineyard and, from the 2019 vintage, resumed a small production of Château Doisy-Dubroca.

• 1809: Jean-Jacques-Emmanuel Daëne buys Doisy from his brother-in-law Bernard Duboscq
• 9 December 1875: part of Doisy is ceded to the brothers Marcel and Camille Dubroca
• 1958: Pierre Dubourdieu, owner of Doisy-Daëne, buys part of Doisy-Dubroca
• 1971: Lucien Lurton buys Château Climens and Château Doisy-Dubroca; Louis Lurton takes over in 1992
• 2012: the Lurton family pulls up the vines
• 2014: Denis Dubourdieu buys the estate from Louis Lurton
• 2019: small-scale production resumes from the entirely replanted vineyard

Doisy-Dubroca is one of the Dubourdieu family estates grouped as Denis Dubourdieu Domaines. The group was named in 2004 (as Denis Dubourdieu Estates), is controlled exclusively by the family, and covers more than 135 hectares in over 300 plots across five villages; its other estates include Château Doisy-Daëne, Château Reynon, Clos Floridène and Château Haura. Denis Dubourdieu (1949-2016) presided over Doisy-Daëne from 2000 and was a professor-researcher and consulting oenologist to more than 70 properties in France and abroad; he initiated the founding of the ISVV (Institut des sciences de la vigne et du vin) south of Bordeaux. His sons, Fabrice and Jean-Jacques Dubourdieu, joined the family estates in 2004 and 2006 respectively, and have continued the family project since 2016.

• Group: Denis Dubourdieu Domaines, controlled exclusively by the Dubourdieu family
• More than 135 hectares in over 300 plots across five villages
• Fabrice and Jean-Jacques Dubourdieu: fourth generation, joined in 2004 and 2006

The vineyard in production covers 1.5 hectares of clay and limestone, planted entirely to Sémillon. It lies between Château Doisy-Védrines and Château Doisy-Daëne, right next to several Doisy-Daëne parcels, with the red-brown sandy-clay soils of Barsac at the surface over deeper fissured limestone. The whole vineyard was replanted after the Lurton family pulled up the vines in 2012.

• Area in production: 1.5 hectares
• Variety: 100% Sémillon
• Terroir: clay and limestone
• Entirely replanted by the Dubourdieu family after the 2012 pull-up

Grapes are harvested by hand in successive pickings and sorted. The wine is fermented and aged in barrel, with 33% new wood, for 12 months, then spends 6 months in stainless steel tank. Winedoctor credits the deeper fissured limestone under Barsac's red-brown sandy-clay topsoil with giving the Doisy wines 'their distinctive character.'

Château Doisy-Dubroca is an 1855 classed second growth in the Barsac appellation. Winedoctor calls it 'by far the smallest of all the classified Sauternes premiers and deuxièmes crus' and notes that even in full production its annual output was often just a few hundred cases.

Primary sources (the Dubourdieu family group's own site, Denis Dubourdieu Domaines): https://www.denisdubourdieu.com/en/chateau-doisy-dubroca-en/, https://www.denisdubourdieu.com/chateau-doisy-dubroca/, https://www.denisdubourdieu.com/en/our-history/, https://www.denisdubourdieu.com/en/chateau-doisy-daene-en/. Secondary sources: Decanter (Jane Anson, last updated 26 May 2015), https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/denis-dubourdieu-buys-chateau-doisy-dubroca-9166/; Winedoctor, https://www.thewinedoctor.com/bordeaux/doisydubroca.shtml and https://www.thewinedoctor.com/bordeaux/doisydubroca_2.shtml. Last verified 2026-10-20. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.