Chibaou

Chibaou Estate : racehorses and Bordeaux wines

The Chibaou Estate is located in the Bordeaux wine region, specifically in the southeastern hilly landscapes of Entre-deux-Mers. It is a vineyard that has been in existence since the early 1900s, founded by Christophe Rebillou’s great-grandfather. With his wife Madeleine, they settled in Castelviel, marking the first steps of the estate. Their son Robert and their grandson Bernard modernized and developed it over the years. In 2005, after studying wine and management for several years and gaining experience in the United States and the Languedoc region, Christophe returned to the family estate, which at that time consisted of 40 hectares worked in a cooperative cellar.

Desiring to produce their own wines, he purchased four vats, a small press, and a pump, and embarked on the elaboration of his first wine: Château Grenet 2005, which won a medal at the Bordeaux competition the same year. A very promising future began to take shape.

Gradually, he expanded the cellar already established in Saint-Félix-de-Foncaude to adapt it to his needs and decided to transition to organic farming in 2008. In 2011, the entire vineyard received organic certification. The cooperative cellar no longer exists, and the 40 hectares are now all vinified in Saint-Félix-de-Foncaude.

That same year, Christophe and his wife Émilie purchased two new properties overlooking their vineyard: one in Castelviel and the other in Saint-Laurent-du-Bois, where they decided to create an equestrian center. Moreover, Chibaou in Gascon means horse, a typical name suggesting a close connection between the history of the estate and the equestrian world. It is also a nod to his great-grandfather, the founder of the estate, who was also a professional coachman.

The estate is now divided into three châteaux:

– Château Grenet, the historic one, located on the clay-limestone hillsides of Castelviel.
-Château Beyran, consisting of about twenty hectares of vineyards, but mostly comprising the cellar, offices, and the house where Christophe grew up in Saint-Félix-de-Foncaude.
-Château Fontaine Fleury, in Saint-Laurent-du-Bois, where Christophe and his wife Émilie developed an equestrian activity, and consisting of about thirty hectares of vineyards and meadows.

Passionate about his terroir and deeply enamored with wine, Christophe crafts all his cuvées as naturally as possible. Creative and ambitious, he has taken control of the entire production and marketing process of the wines in order to be autonomous and innovative. His determination is based on a freedom to experiment, from the vineyard to the winemaking process, and to present unique and differently crafted products. He enjoys challenging conventions by using unconventional blends and single-varietal wines (while the Bordeaux region has built its reputation on blended wines) or grape varieties less commonly used in Bordeaux, such as Malbec.
He enjoys giving free rein to his imagination to offer ever more original and delicious wines, working with white grape varieties Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon, and Colombard, and red grape varieties Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc.