We stayed at the charming Chateau Bessan, situated around 20km to the southeast of Bordeaux, in Autumn 2021. Owner Sylvie was the most gracious of hosts. We spent the late afternoon tasting Chateau Bessan's excellent wines while enjoying a magnificent sunset, sitting on the terrace of the "Cabane dans les Vignes" - a wood cabin surrounded by Chateau Bessan's small plot of vines, overlooking the Garonne river.
Harvest had just been completed, with a crop yield that had been halved due to the bad frosts experienced in many regions of France earlier in the year. Sylvie talked to us about the family history of the estate, which had been bought in the late 1980's as a project primarily of her late husband's making. Sylvie now runs the vineyard and guesthouse within the Chateau, while her son Matthieu increasingly takes on the farming, commercial aspects of the winery, and the winemaking and blending that is synonymous with the Bordeaux region. With an organic accreditation, and a delicious line-up of wines, we were pleased to become the first and exclusive importers of Chateau Bessan's wines to the United Kingdom.