Chateau de Plehaut can trace it's history to the 12th century, with a 13th century tower still incorporated into the current chateau building. As a seigneury, many of the surrounding fields and farms once belonged to it and were worked on this rich land which benefits from it's own water source near the house, and has the river Baise -one of the 5 important rivers that runs down from the Pyrenees all the way to the Gironde estuary at Bordeaux - running wide and slow below the gardens.

These days, still surrounded by rich rolling farmland, the chateau is no longer a working property, but it retains just over 12 acres of glorious deciduous woodland, brimming with wildlife and just waiting to be explored.

The province of Gascony, which had existed since Roman times, was inherited in 1152 by Henry 11 of England when he married Eleanor of Aquitaine. For 300 years the English Kings, who were also the Dukes of Aquitaine, ruled this warm, fertile and productive land with, if records are correct, a light touch: Believing that this, arguably England's first 'colony', would be best ruled by getting the inhabitants on side, it was largely left to itself.

The laws of the land being drawn up from it's existing culture and tradition, the English nobility were mostly content to receive the Gascon wines shipped out from Bordeaux and export, in return, wheat. Any Gascon 'paysan' in the middle ages would have had a small vineyard on his plot and this area is still full of small private domains where excellent 'Boutique' wines can be found.