PELLEHAUT : THE STORY OF ONE FAMILY AND ITS TERROIR

Château de Pellehaut has a long and edifying story to tell – that of the Béraut family, who have lived at Montréal-du-Gers for four centuries.

In the 1950s, agronomy graduate Gaston Béraut took over the management of the family estate, breaking with the tradition of entrusting the running of it to a tenant farmer.

During the 1970s, Gaston and his wife gradually acquired new land, doubling the overall surface area of the estate from 150 to 300 hectares, including 50ha of vines. Following this expansion, the property now included higher-lying parcels less subject to frost, abundant springs and hilltop lakes offering possibilities for irrigating the land and providing water for the livestock. It was at this period that Gaston Béraut decided to distil his own wines to make armagnac.

In the early 1980s, as its armagnacs began posting some success in tasting competitions, the estate applied for certification of its wines under the Vins des Côtes de Gascogne appellation.

These efforts were continued and stepped up with the restructuring of the vineyard and the reorganisation and re-equipping of the winemaking facilities, and the presence of sons Martin and Mathieu in the vineyard – the scene of their first baby steps and childhood games. 

The descendants of a line of Armagnac winegrowers and qualified viticulturalists and oenologists, Mathieu and Martin Béraut have run the family estate with simplicity and drive for the past twenty years.