Why it matters
The producer
The strongest thread at Château du Tertre runs from an unusually early estate history to a clear grape signature. The Seigneurie d'Arsac appears in records from 1143, while the wines today are understood through Cabernet Sauvignon in the grand vin. That grape supplies freshness and silky, enveloping tannins, giving the wine both lift when young and the shape to develop in bottle.
The range also includes Les Hauts du Tertre, a second wine with its own blend and flavour register. It is made from 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and 25% Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The composition brings a softer, silkier reading of the estate's red wine range, with spicy and fruity notes and aromatic complexity.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Château du Tertre belongs to Bordeaux, in France. That regional setting places the wines inside a blend-led tradition, but the most useful label relationship is more specific: the grand vin is the principal bottle, while Les Hauts du Tertre is the second wine with a separately stated composition. Cabernet Sauvignon links the two, while the additional grapes in Les Hauts du Tertre broaden its fruit and spice profile.
The estate's bottles also carry different time signals. The grand vin is associated with a 10 to 25 year window after vintage, while Les Hauts du Tertre offers a distinct expression through its silky texture and aromatic range. The label names therefore point to both position and style.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Cabernet Sauvignon is the clearest production choice attached to the grand vin. Its freshness keeps the wine lively, while its silky, enveloping tannins provide the material for bottle development. The drinking window gives that grape role a practical consequence: this is a wine whose character can unfold over a decade or more.
Les Hauts du Tertre makes the range architecture visible in the blend itself. Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for 40%, Merlot 35%, and Cabernet Franc with Petit Verdot the remaining 25%. That proportion is paired with a silky texture, spicy and fruity notes, and aromatic complexity, giving the second wine a defined character of its own.
Wines to know
The range in view
Château du Tertre, the grand vin, is the bottle to associate with Cabernet Sauvignon's contribution. Freshness sits alongside silky, enveloping tannins, and the wine carries enough ageing potential to reach optimal drinking between 10 and 25 years after vintage. The 2015 vintage supplies a particularly clear profile, with fresh blackcurrant and black cherry aromas followed by purity on the palate.
Les Hauts du Tertre is the second wine, blended from 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and 25% Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Its stated style is silky, with spicy and fruity notes and aromatic complexity. The blend gives it a separate position in the range, with fruit, spice and texture doing more of the talking than a long cellaring horizon.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Château du Tertre 2015 is the bottle to open first. It offers the clearest vintage-specific picture of the estate: fresh blackcurrant and black cherry in the glass, purity across the palate, and Cabernet Sauvignon providing freshness with silky, enveloping tannins. The wine also introduces the estate's time scale, since Château du Tertre typically reaches optimal drinking between 10 and 25 years after vintage. One bottle therefore brings together fruit, texture, grape character and the way the grand vin is meant to develop.