Château de Goulaine

The Château de Goulaine is a historic château located in the Loire Valley wine region near Nantes, France. The property has been home to the family of the marquis de Goulaine for over a thousand years. The Goulaine name is also used for estate-bottled wine that is produced at the property.

In the 12th century, when the Duchy of Brittany was independent, the first Goulaine, Jean de Goulaine, then captain of the city of Nantes, fortified the estate, which is still surrounded by marshes, to defend against attacks from Normans. The Goulaine family was of the old nobility, recorded in the Seventh Crusade (1248).

During the Wars of Religion, the Goulaines fought for the Catholic League – Gabriel, sieur de Goulaine, at the head of fifty lancers, and his brother Jean, baron du Faouët, took the châteaux of Trogoff (Plouescat) and of Kérouzéré (Sibiril) in 1590. Gabriel was attached to the Bourbon cause in being made a marquis by Henry IV of France.

The Goulaine family's ownership of the estate continued uninterrupted until 1788, when it was sold to a Dutch banker. This circumstance helped save the château from destruction during the French Revolution. In 1858, the Goulaine family reacquired the estate and maintains it today.

While it is not clear exactly when the estate vineyard started producing wine for commercial use, rather than just family consumption, the millennium during which the estate of Château de Goulaine has been producing wine makes it the second-oldest known wine business still in existence, after the Staffelter Hof winery in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The Goulaine winery is believed to be one of the oldest commercial enterprises in the world, and it is considered the oldest European family owned business. The castle estate is one of the last châteaux of the Loire Valley to still be producing wine.

In addition to producing a Muscadet, the Goulaine winery produces a Sancerre and a Vouvray, as well as what is believed to be the first commercial Chardonnay in the western Loire Valley. The estate also grows some Folle blanche.

The style of the château, under its high-pitched slate roofs, bears some comparison to the central Loire estates of Château de Blois and Château de Chambord. However, Château de Goulaine was built much earlier and in a more conservative style.

Text adapted from “Château de Goulaine” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Château de Goulaine ranks #3,261 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #245 of the 525 mapped in France. Founded c. 1450, it is older than 49% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 455 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,249 times in the last 60 days, more than 69% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Angers, 70 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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