THE ESTATE Chateau Haut Selve has a unique history in Bordeaux. In the 19th century it was a prominent wine estate, and the largest in Bordeaux at 350 hectares, but like many wineries at that time, it was destroyed by phylloxera and abandoned. The owners never returned and nothing else was built on the land. In the early 1990's the Lesgourgues family came upon the property in their search for property in Graves to complement their other Bordeaux estate, Chateau Cadillac, and their Armagnac house, Chateau de Laubade. They were attracted by a couple of things: First; the location of Chateau Haut Selve in the northern part of the Graves appellation very close to the border with Pessac-Lognan, and second; Its trademark gravelly soil composed of clay and limestone. They took advantage of an archaic rule allowing producers to add to their land under vine only if their net total did not increase. It also stipulated that the new property be less than half a day's horse ride from the original - which luckily was the case. So, the family sold part of the Chateau Cadillac property in order to purchase 43 hectares of the land in Graves. They then began the process of rehabilitating the land and invested in a state of the art modern winery. They planted vines in 1993 - 32 hectares dedicated to red wine and 11 dedicated to white. And, thus began the second incarnation of Chateau Haut Selve - the first new winery in Graves this century.