1 · Opening
Château Figeac sold fifteen hectares to Laussac-Fourcaud in 1832, including part of the gravel ridge that runs on towards Pétrus. The family held it for 166 years.
2 · Why it matters
Bernard Arnault and Baron Albert Frère bought it in 1998 for around €135–155m. In 2006 LVMH opened a hotel at Courchevel and named it after the winery; a mirrored horse stands at the door, and the restaurant is called 1947 after the château's most famous vintage.
**This Library is full of hotels that opened restaurants. Here a vineyard opened hotels.** LHL-002 Cheval Blanc now runs five maisons on an identity borrowed from forty hectares of gravel and clay in Saint-Émilion, and that is authorship of the most literal kind.
3 · Signature & ritual
Cabernet Franc in unusual proportion, and Christian de Portzamparc's 2011 cellar — shaped like a double-hulled boat, 52 concrete vats, a roof that doubles as a garden.
4 · What this house does not solve
The estate has no rooms and does not lodge visitors. It is in this group on the third route — the name became a house — not on the first.
It withdrew from the Saint-Émilion classification in 2021 rather than be reassessed, a decision the trade is still arguing about.
The 1947 vintage that named a restaurant is also the most counterfeited wine in Bordeaux.
5 · LHL connections
- LHL-002Cheval BlancThe hotel brand that carries this estate’s name.
- LHL-S-210Bodegas Marqués de RiscalThe other producer whose name became a house.
6 · Timeline
- 1832Figeac sells fifteen hectares to Laussac-Fourcaud.
- 1954Classified Premier Grand Cru Classé A.
- 1998Arnault and Frère buy the estate after 166 years in one family.
- 2006LVMH names a hotel after the winery.
- 2011Portzamparc’s cellar opens.
- 2021The estate withdraws from the Saint-Émilion classification.
7 · LHL story
“A Vineyard Opened Hotels” — This Library is full of hotels that opened restaurants. Here the direction reverses.
Sources
What the entry rests on. Each reference records the specific facts it supports, so a disputed line can be traced to the account it came from.