Discover Tauriac: Wine, Church and History

If you’re looking for a hotel in Tauriac, you can get a sense of the area by focusing on its key features: the Église Saint-Étienne, wine estates with land in several municipalities, and a range of wine experiences. Tours, tastings, a blending workshop and seasonal winemakers’ barbecues each have their own scheduling or booking requirements. When planning your trip, it’s therefore worth considering the activities and their requirements separately.

Église Saint-Étienne: heritage status and architecture

The Église Saint-Étienne was designated a historic monument in October 2005. Its architectural features include buttresses, decorated corbels, and capitals decorated inside and out. The church thus combines a clear heritage status with several distinctive architectural details. If you’re choosing a destination with architecture in mind as well as wine, it offers a cultural highlight in its own right in Tauriac.

Vineyards and their differences

The vineyard areas are not confined to a single municipality. Château de Mayne Bernard covers 37 hectares across Tauriac, Bourg and Lansac. The 38-hectare Château Nodoz estate extends across Tauriac, Lansac and Bourg-sur-Gironde; the château itself is located mainly in Tauriac. The areas are similar in size, but the municipalities listed are not the same.

The vineyards also differ in their characteristics. At Château Nodoz, the vineyard lies on a gravel slope with east-southeast and southwest-facing aspects. Château Brûlesécaille has well-drained clay-limestone and clay-gravel soils. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec are grown there. The vineyard also sits on a ridge overlooking the Dordogne. At Nodoz, the focus is on slope composition and aspect; at Brûlesécaille, on soil types and grape varieties, as well as its described position above the river.

Tours, wine tastings and dates

Château Brûlesécaille can be visited by appointment Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Arrange your visit in advance and confirm the appointment before your trip.

At Château Le Moulin de la Marzelle, tours and wine tastings are offered by reservation year-round, Wednesday to Sunday. As arrangements may change, check the latest dates in advance.

For a more in-depth exploration of wine, an introductory blending workshop is also available there by appointment. Participants make their own wine and can take home six bottles. Groups are limited to six people, and the price is €75 per person. Confirm the booking terms in advance.

Another offering follows a seasonal schedule: from April to October, Château Le Moulin de la Marzelle holds winemakers’ barbecues on the 20th of each month. Check the date in advance, as event dates may change. The offerings therefore differ not only in what they involve, but also in whether a reservation, an appointment or confirmation of a specific date is required.

The stone trade and its history

The history of the stone trade offers another perspective on Tauriac. Building stone was quarried at La Pierrière; La Lustre supplied high-quality cut stone by boat along the rivers to Bordeaux and other building sites. The two locations thus represent different stages: quarrying building stone and transporting cut stone. Later, underground tunnel systems were used for several decades to grow “Paris” mushrooms. The story moves from stone quarrying to shipping and then to the tunnels’ later use—a distinct strand of history alongside the wine estates and the church.

Discover more destinations: Saint-Morillon, Plassac, Pompignac, Pomerol, Lège-Cap-Ferret, Origne, Saint-Louis-de-Montferrand, Eysines.

For the regional travel overview: Gironde.