An estate composed like a suite.
LaSuite in Profile
LaSuite aux Conseillans is an owner-run boutique winery at the gates of Bordeaux. Five hectares of vines lie within 19 hectares of forest, meadows and water. We release each wine only once it is ready to drink.
We compose wine like a suite.
We compose wine like a suite: movements of equal standing, each cuvée with its own character and function, with no ranking of first and second wines. Only together do they form the picture of the Domaine.
LaSuite aux Conseillans is an owner-run boutique winery at the gates of Bordeaux. Marc and Ellen Ruhland run the estate themselves, in small quantities and with plenty of time; here, wine and music belong together. What guides us is set out in our Philosophy — the wines themselves are shown in the Repertoire, the music on the Wine & Music page.
Forest, meadows, water — and wine.
The Domaine aux Conseillans is more than its vines. Five hectares of wine lie within a 19-hectare landscape of forest, meadows and watercourses, protected as a Site Classé since 1975. Around the parcels lives a diverse ecosystem — hedges, trees, animals and insects belong to it for us, just as the vines themselves do.
Where the renowned sites of Bordeaux are sometimes monoculture, we deliberately uphold this diversity; it is part of what ends up in the glass. More about the nature around the estate and its long history.
Worked with scientific precision.
Four terroirs shape the vines across 16 parcels — gravel, clay, sand and a gravel-clay mix (more on the Terroir page). We harvest and vinify each parcel separately, so that it keeps its own voice, and intervene little, because we understand the processes precisely. In the vineyard we work certified organic and to HVE4; we release each vintage only once it is ready to drink — we carry the ageing risk ourselves.
This precision has a tradition here: for decades the estate belonged to Jean Ribéreau-Gayon, one of the co-founders of modern oenology, who shaped the Domaine. We continue in this line — more under Time as a Principle and The Oenologists' Legacy.
A suite of movements of equal standing.
The cuvées bear the names of classical suite movements — Prélude, Gigue, Sarabande, Allemande, Louré —, each with its own tempo and tension. Caprice plays a role of its own, with which we rethink Bordeaux; what we mean by that is explained by New Bordeaux.
And here music is a lived practice: the pianist Ellen Ruhland brings young talents to the estate through concerts and the Fonds aux Conseillans. How wine and music come together is shown by Wine & Music.
“We compose wines that reveal their origin — and give them the time they need.”Our Stance
Explore the profile further.
Every theme on this page has a home of its own — from the estate and its nature through our stance to wine and people.