Château Tertre de Courban is the second wine of Château La Galante, an independent winery run by owner-grower Christophe Pinard. Christophe comes from a family of Cognac winegrowers but chose to forge his own path in Bordeaux. In 1991, he purchased 30 acres of prime vineyard in the Dordogne valley. Christophe now has 75 acres stretching over the communes of Beychac-et-Caillau and Saint-Sulpice-et-Cameyrac, between the cities of Bordeaux and Libourne. Christophe built everything on the estate himself from the barn to the cellar. This winery is High Environmental Value Certified, level three. This is the highest level assigned by the French Ministry of Agriculture for farms that practice biodiversity conservation, plant protection strategy, and management of fertilizer and water use.
The vineyard is situated in the northern tip of Entre-Deux-Mers and enjoys the maritime influences of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. Here, there’s plenty of sunshine and just enough rain. The soils are dominated by clay with traces of loam and gravel. Merlot loves clay. Grapes are harvested by machine and undergo cold maceration, natural fermentation, and micro-oxygenation in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks. The finished wine is aged in the tanks until bottling.