Château Siran 1918-2008

BY NEAL MARTIN | JUNE 10, 2020

Introduction 

In December 2018, Edouard Miailhe, the proprietor of Château Siran, invited me for a vertical tasting of his wine. I was in the area assessing the 2017s in bottle. How could I refuse? It was a fascinating retrospective, and my intention was to write up the article in early January. Alas, last year’s spell of ill health threw my plans into disarray and consequently the reviews gathered dust on my hard drive. Finally, I have gotten around to publishing these notes – better late than never. Perhaps with the 2019 Bordeaux primeur campaign revving its engines/spluttering into action (depending on your sentiments toward the region), this is an opportune moment to focus upon a property that has improved immensely in recent years and remains comparatively affordable. How we need that in times like these!

Louis and Edouard Miailhe pictured here at the end of World War I.

History

The etymology of Siran comes from the 13th century, with reference to a town between Perpignan and Narbonne where you will find a “Château de Siran,” now a hotel owned by an aristocratic family. Records show that vines were once productive on that site and one can speculate upon a tenuous link. The genesis of Siran becomes less murky moving forward a couple of centuries. In the 15th century, a dignitary by the name of Guilhem de Siran offered refuge to the monastic order of Saint-Croix that settled in the locality and founded the parishes of Macau and Labarde on the Labarde plateau. During the French revolution, Count La Roque Bouillac owned the estate. He emigrated in 1791 and left his daughter Jeanne at the property. She married Alphonse, Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The original purchase deeds are housed in a glass cabinet by the entrance of the château that was constructed during the first half of the 19th century. On January 14, 1859, the Lautrec family sold the estate to Monsieur Barbier for the sum of 130,000 francs, a down payment of 30,000 francs having been made the previous year. (Of course, the name Lautrec is synonymous with the famous painter, and it was indeed Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s grandparents who sold the estate. Their ancestors had owned Siran at least as far back as the 1700s.) Monsieur Barbier had two daughters, and they married two brothers of the Solberg family, stockbrokers in Bordeaux city and owners of Château Marquis de Terme. Bankruptcy forced them to flee to Argentina, and the Solbergs’ properties were seized, apart from Siran, since their spouses’ names were on the deeds. In 1885, Siran came into the hands of the evocatively named Lovely Solberg. I asked proprietor Edouard Miailhe what inspired her unusual name. He answered that his cousin is also called “Lovely,” so I deduce it is a family tradition. Lovely Solberg married Monsieur Ellie-Edouard Miailhe, at which point there were approximately 11 hectares under vine.

Thereafter Siran remained in the hands of the Miailhe family. They are descended from 18th-century courtiers and négociants, Edouard Miailhe famously running Pichon-Lalande from 1926. Prior to World War II, the vineyard was planted with mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec; Merlot was planted after the war. As I recounted in my recent article examining the 1945 vintage, the Miailhe family were forced to relocate to Siran after German officers requisitioned the château to billet their troops. Edouard Miailhe’s son William Alain inherited the Pauillac Growth in 1959 and simultaneously took over the running of Siran. The family had accrued shares in Palmer and Dauzac, in addition to tracts of land in the Lande region. With such a diverse portfolio of estates, inheritance was complicated, and it was not until 1978 that the family agreed that Alain’s sister, the indefatigable May-Elaine Lencquesaing, would become proprietor of Pichon-Lalande while William Alain was bequeathed Siran.

William Alain’s son and the current proprietor of Siran, also named Edouard Miailhe, was born in 1967, the nephew of May-Eliane Lencquesaing, who remained the matriarch of Pichon-Lalande until its sale to Louis Roederer in 2006. Miailhe is naturally an outgoing and lively proprietor, a bon viveur/ family man with impeccable English, outspoken and candid in conversation. I think that is partly because he had an outsider’s perspective upon Bordeaux for many years, not necessarily a bad thing. Miailhe has rapidly become assimilated into the Bordeaux firmament and, as well as running Siran, he was appointed president of the Margaux appellation. 

As Miailhe grew up in Bordeaux and Paris, I asked about his childhood memories of visiting Bordeaux. “When we were small, we went to Pichon-Lalande and Siran, but nobody was living in any of the châteaux back then,” he replied. “It was just to spend a day in the countryside. I had no idea that one day I would be living in Bordeaux making wine. I thought I would work in the car industry. But I ended up in finance, which was what my father expected me to do. In 1993, I started working in Paris, and around 2003 or 2004, I was in the Philippines. It was there that I began enjoying wine more and more. My parents retired in 2007, and I told them that I would be happy to take over the property, but I didn’t move to Bordeaux permanently until 2015. Together with my children, we inherited the property in 2011, and it was then that I knew I would move back. I have four children, three boys and one girl, two in Bordeaux and two in boarding school. They love the wine, but who knows who will click with actually making wine as their livelihood.” I ask Edouard where his interests lie beyond wine. “Outside wine, I love vintage cars. I have two here, an old Mercedes and an old BMW. I love driving them and fixing them.” Indeed, one of his Mercedes is parked in the courtyard and no doubt he strokes its bonnet every morning.