Our origins
Our origins
Cap Royal was born of the Bordeaux wine trade and of one simple intention: to offer a great Bordeaux made for sharing. Its name comes from a lighthouse.
The brand
A pleasure wine signed by a great vineyard of the Médoc
Cap Royal was created in 2003 within Compagnie Médocaine des Grands Crus, a merchant house founded in 1977 by Jean-Michel Cazes and a 100% subsidiary of AXA Millésimes since 2001 — a history closely bound to the world of the great classified growths.
The standard applied to the group's finest estates is found here in two accessible wines: batches chosen one by one for their quality and complexity, closely monitored ageing, and the signature of Pierre Montégut since 2022.
Cap Royal embodies the sharing of the present moment.
Our origins
A Bordeaux story
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1152
The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenet opens the English market to the port of Bordeaux: wine exports soar.
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Around 1360
A light tower rises at the mouth of the Gironde, the "Tour aux Anglais": the first Cordouan lighthouse.
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18th century
The first merchants settle in Bordeaux — Barton, Lawton, Guestier — and develop the wine trade towards northern Europe and the Caribbean.
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1855
The Grand Cru Classé classification system is established.
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1862
Cordouan is listed as a Historical Monument, at the same time as Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
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1936
The INAO is founded and the appellations of origin are born.
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1977
Jean-Michel Cazes, owner of Château Lynch-Bages, founds Compagnie Médocaine des Grands Crus.
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2001
Compagnie Médocaine des Grands Crus becomes a 100% subsidiary of AXA Millésimes.
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2003
Cap Royal is born.
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2013
The Cap Royal brand is redesigned.
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2021
The Cordouan lighthouse is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
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2022
Pierre Montégut, technical director of Château Pichon Baron, Pibran and Suduiraut, signs the Cap Royal wines.
The name
The Cordouan lighthouse
Cap Royal owes its name to the Cordouan lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in Europe. It stands off the tip of the Médoc, where the peninsula takes the shape of a cape, and watches over the Gironde estuary.
Since ancient times, tradition records hermits lighting fires to guide sailors. Around 1360, the Black Prince — Edward, Prince of Wales — ordered a light tower to be built: a sixteen-metre polygonal tower topped by a platform where a hermit tended a nightly wood fire. Over the centuries it became the lighthouse we know today.
Its grand architecture earned it the nickname "Versailles of the Sea". It was also called the "King of Lighthouses" and the "Lighthouse of Kings".
Symbols
A point of reference that guides wine lovers
Cap Royal shares deep-rooted symbols with the Cordouan lighthouse: authenticity, and the fierce beauty of something unique in which man and nature have combined to shape something great.
Cap Royal is to Bordeaux what Cordouan is to the estuary: a fixed bearing, found in the same place at every vintage.