Château de Monbazillac

16th-century chateau and the heart of the Monbazillac sweet wine appellation

The Château de Monbazillac sits on a low hill seven kilometres south of Bergerac, with the vineyards of the Monbazillac appellation falling away on every side. The building, finished in 1550, is a transitional work — a fortified manor with corner towers and crenellations, but also Renaissance windows, dormers, and slate roofs.

The château is open to the public and combines a museum (Protestant history, period furniture, a small wine museum) with a tasting room. The view from the terrace runs across the vineyards to Bergerac and the Dordogne valley beyond. The cooperative's wines are sold on site at fair prices, and the cellar restaurant is a decent place for a long Périgord lunch.

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A story
Monbazillac is a sweet white wine made from grapes affected by *Botrytis cinerea* — the noble rot that also makes Sauternes. The Protestant Huguenots who fled Bergerac after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 took bottles with them to the Netherlands, and it was Dutch merchants who first turned Monbazillac into an internationally traded luxury. The château now belongs to the local growers' cooperative.