Where power and money are found, there is usually good eating – and Bordeaux’s hegemony came from wine, itself an agricultural product and one that demands fine food. In his great 1958 book The Food of France, Waverley Root describes sauce bordelaise (wine, butter, marrow, thyme, nutmeg) but then lists several entirely different dishes that are also described as à la bordelaise – an indication of how spoilt for choice, with their vast array of wonderful products, the region’s inhabitants have always been.
The recent crop of fine-dining restaurants in wine châteaux – who are waking up to the possibilities of oenotourism – confirms that the tradition of using beautiful ingredients to make dishes that glorify some of the world’s greatest wines is thriving. There is now great eating in châteaux from Sauternes to the northern reaches of the Médoc and, perhaps especially, in Saint-Émilion, where a closer look at even the oldest eating establishment, Le Logis de la Cadène (founded 1848) reveals a château connection: this Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms is owned by Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, President of one of Bordeaux’s finest estates, Château Angélus.
There is now great eating in châteaux from Sauternes to the northern reaches of the Médoc and, perhaps especially, in Saint-Émilion
The Bordeaux châteaux restaurants listed below benefit from the kinds of cellars that can be mustered by people who have been making fabulous wines for generations – sometimes for centuries. Some are attached to hotels, which is especially useful for avoiding any need to drink First Growths and drive; all are surrounded by vineyards and run by chefs determined to offer visitors the best possible gastronomic experience of the region. For centuries, the Bordelais viewed a knock on the château door as an intrusion, acceptable only if the intruder wished to taste swiftly, buy copiously and depart precipitately. That is no longer how wine-lovers behave and the great châteaux have adjusted their actions to suit their clientele, just as they have been doing for hundreds of years – a habit that has probably been as instrumental in their success as the marvels of their terroir.
Seven top Bordeaux châteaux restaurants
La Grand’Vigne at Les Sources de Caudalie, Château Smith Haut Lafitte
Martillac
Former ski champions Daniel and Florence Cathiard bought this wine estate in the 1990s but it was their daughters, Alice and Mathilde, who made the property as famous for hospitality as for wine, with luxury hotel Les Sources de Caudalie and a line of grape-based health products that is now global. But it’s not all skin food: the hotel has the two Michelin-starred La Grand’Vigne, where Nicolas Masse takes full and inventive advantage of the bounty of Aquitaine, including the wines, which he uses as infusion and ingredient as well as accompaniment. There is also more casual food at La Table de Lavoir, constructed (from 18th-century timber from Lafite Rothschild’s cellars) around a lavoir – the stone communal washing trough once used by women to do their laundry.
Au Marquis de Terme, Château Marquis de Terme
Margaux
This Bordeaux châteaux restaurant with modern décor was the first opened by a Margaux château and has everything that a place with that kind of pedigree should. There’s a terrace surrounded by the Médoc vineyards; an open kitchen, so that guests can watch chef Grégory Coutanceau work on the dishes that he views as a meeting place between the waters around La Rochelle (where he has several other restaurants) and the Bordeaux landscape; and a wine list showcasing this world-famous terroir. There are frequent Grands Crus dinners too: a six-course set menu and an opportunity to explore the wines of a specific château, each carefully matched to a dish.
Café Lavinal, Château Lynch-Bages
Bages
The Cazes family bought Chateau Lynch-Bages, overlooking the Gironde estuary, in 1939 and it was the foundation of a wine empire that, under Jean-Michel, expanded to include another six estates reaching as far as Portugal’s Douro. Jean-Michel, who died in 2023 at the age of 88, also renovated the village of Bages and opened this charming 1930s-style brasserie, a few steps from Lynch-Bages in one direction and the family’s hotel, Château Cordeillan-Bages, in the other. It’s very pleasant to sit looking out on the cobbled village square, eating foie gras terrine, scallops or saddle of lamb with a selection from the 1,800-strong wine list, while watching the world pass by. Gabriel Gette’s treatment of these classics is more sophisticated than your average village brasserie – but then, Bages is not your average village.
Le Jardin Petit Faurie de Soutard, Château Petit Faurie de Soutard
Saint-Émilion
Just beyond the beautiful city of Saint-Émilion sits this estate named, in part, for a vineyard recorded in 1850 as being situated on a particularly promising lieu-dit, or named plot of land, Petit Faurie. These days there is a garden as well as a vineyard: Le Jardin is a Bordeaux château restaurant with a quietly elegant interior and outside tables that look onto the garden (including a kitchen garden) as well as the vineyards. Chef Stéphane Casset’s dishes are simple but well executed, with judicious additions from elsewhere: shitake mushrooms, coconut milk. Wine and food pairing is a game they enjoy here and with more than 500 wine labels, there is plenty to play with.
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Terrasse Rouge, Château La Dominique
Saint-Émilion
The walls of windows slide back, on warm days, to give direct access to the outdoor area and bring visitors into direct communion with the vines. Which makes this terrace above the cellars an extension of La Dominique’s vineyards, encompassing 29 hectares on the Right Bank within hailing distance of legendary wine châteaux La Conseillante and Cheval Blanc. The wine list ranges across France and so intent are the proprietors, and chef François Duchet, on showcasing local ingredients that their producers are actually named in several of the dishes.
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Le Cercle Guiraud
Sauternes
Château Guiraud was classified as a Sauternes Premier Grand Cru in the famous 1855 hierarchy of Bordeaux vineyards and was the first of those estates to open a restaurant, in the property’s former Protestant chapel. Which makes sense: Sauternes is a wonderful food-matching wine that suffers from the mistaken assumption that sweet wine belongs with dessert. The proprietor also has this restaurant in the village of Sauternes, so close (less than a mile away) that it too offers views of the vines. Here, chef Yann Amado reinterprets French classics as well as serving unclassical sharing plates of charcuterie or taramasalata. Amado trained under triple-Michelin-starred Eric Fréchon, which may explain the chicken with vin jaune and morels on his menu that appears to be an homage to Fréchon’s legendary chicken cooked in a bladder, which a dish that also includes those ingredients. Products are local (sometimes, from the Guiraud kitchen garden) and in addition to pastries made by Juliette Bonnard, there is a wine list overseen by Denis Verneau, who has won the prestigious accolade Meilleur Ouvrier de France.
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Château Fage la Maison des Vignes
Arveyres
Not every château wants to offer guests the aristocratic treatment: at Château Fage, the aim is to make arrivals feel like family. Usefully situated halfway between Bordeaux and Saint-Émilion, this 19th-century property now has a 26-room hotel, a slender heated pool (open summer only) and a bistro restaurant overseen by Clement Costes, formerly of Le Skiff Club (a restaurant beside Arcachon Bay that currently holds two Michelin stars). In addition to Costes’ excellent food – aged beef, fish of the day in wild garlic sauce, candied beetroot – there are interesting tasting options, including a comparison of vineyards fed by the Garonne and Dordogne rivers and one that offers a trio of Merlots from different terroirs. Plus, there are wine- and food-pairing experiences, cooking classes and an option to follow Costes into the kitchen, don chef’s whites and actually get involved with meal prep.
