Château du Tertre, Wine estate in Arsac, France

Château du Tertre is a wine estate in Arsac, in the Margaux appellation, whose château was built around 1736 by glassmaker Pierre Mitchell. The pale multi-storey building has a dark hipped roof, a taller central pavilion with a pyramidal roof and balcony, and a longer right wing with a chimney. The 80-hectare estate holds about 58 hectares of vines, red and white.

The Seigneurie d'Arsac, documented from 1143, passed to Thomas de Montaigne, brother of Michel de Montaigne, through his 1590 marriage to Jacquette d'Arsac. In 1724 the glassmaker Pierre Mitchell bought part of the seigneurie and built the château around 1736. The 1855 Bordeaux classification ranked Le Tertre a Fifth Growth; in 2021 an insurance company bought the estate and leased its operation for 25 years to the Helfrich family.

The name comes from the tertre, the hillock on which the estate stands. The second wine, Les Hauts du Tertre, is made from the same Margaux vineyard, and the red is aged 12 to 15 months in barrels. The 1855 classification as a Fifth Growth fixed its rank among Margaux estates.

The estate lies in Arsac, within the Margaux appellation north of Bordeaux, and the vineyard blocks surround the château, so the rows of vines are reached on foot from the main building. The 2021 sale handed a 25-year lease of the operation to the Helfrich family of Les Grands Chais de France, so visits and tastings are arranged through the current operator rather than the owner.

The name comes from the "tertre", the hillock on which the estate stands. The 1855 classification ranked it a Fifth Growth, and the vineyard has stayed in the same hands since then, though the property changed owners in 2021, when an insurance company bought it and leased the running of the estate to the Helfrich family of Les Grands Chais de France.