Château de Mercuès is a place that one could only imagine, dream of, or invent. The chateau looks like it’s out of a fairy tale, its rich past could actually illustrate exciting pages of a storybook. Staying at Mercuès is like diving into an epic site and an exceptional high-class hotel. Altogether a Relais & Chateaux 4 stars hotel, a gourmet restaurant and a winery, Chateau de Mercuès establishes itself as a haven of peace in the heart of Quercy.

A chic symbol of History

Mercuès, Mercurii, Mercure...
The origin of the place gets its name from the God of Travel. Its origins can be traced back to a fortified Gallo-Roman camp: the Mercury Camp (“Castrum Mercurii”) was so named for being a temple dedicated to the Roman God of Travel. Standing between heaven and earth on a rocky promontory, the Château and its crenelated towers has been dominating the hills of the Lot since the Middle Ages, embracing the whole valley in a dramatic escape.

A Relais & Châteaux hotel, excellence for credo

Whoever is the owner, the Château has always had a soul of its past. The past that the master of the house, Georges Vigouroux, took care to protect until 2010, and that his son, Bertrand-Gabriel, now combines with comfort and elegance, for the sake of timeless quality and unqualified style.
Residence of the Comtes Évêques since the Thirteenth Century, the Château de Mercuès has been through the various artistic influences during the history of France. In this spirit, the Vigouroux family worked with the architect Axel Letellier, specialized in culture and heritage conservation, to restore the original style of each room: Renaissance, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Empire, Art Deco etc. Over seven floors, the Château contains a maze of corridors, stairways, terraces and recesses allowing access to 24 rooms and 6 suites with different ames and styles, as luxurious as they are atypical.
With attention to detail, the Vigouroux family changes its guest’s slumber into a dream come true. Thus the Châteaux’s entire bedding and linen has been carefully chosen to include hand-sewn Trec mattress, full padding, suspension Pullman, framed sprung pocket mattress in addition to fine assorted duvet covers and pillowcases made by a bed linen specialist. The rooms are adorned with high technology such as «mirror televisions» that fit the decor and are forgotten at will.

Le Duèze, a gourmet restaurant

A lord’s home... a king’s feast! The à la Carte menus are elaborated by Julien Poisot, a young Head Chef at Mercuès since April 2014. This cuisine connoisseur takes regional products to the highest levels of gastronomy.
His philosophy is based on the authenticity of the products and simple aesthetic dishes. His specialties include a pot roast saddle of pikeperch with herbs on a Malbec wine glaze, an assortment of beetroots and young root vegetables, or a braised young pigeon with foie gras. Julien Poisot fell under the spell of the kitchen from an early age, and is already famous for his innovative cooking talent that highlights a product without altering its essence.

Le Bistrot du Château

An elegant open-air restaurant that combines arousing of the senses with food via a lunch menu. The Chef proposes a menu with a chic bistro atmosphere, light and original inspired by daily market produce, and changing according to the terroir: tomato tartare and smoked salmon accompanied by his olive oil and basil sorbet, Bigorre ham in Totti salad, or chocolate tart with mint sorbet...

A unique setting for great vintages

The Vigouroux family jewel since 1983, Château de Mercuès reveals the excellence of its terroir, celebrating each year vintages that are more and more appreciated. Its unusual vineyard (50% plantation of 6666 vines per hectare) provides concentrated wines with great potential for ageing. Famous for their deep black colour and their complex and refined aromas, these wines are of great richness.
Alongside the vineyard, Château de Mercuès boasts a superb vinification and ageing winery, carved into the rock beneath the castle gardens where the architect’s touch is a masterpiece.Underroughconcrete volute arches, the stunning Roman- Byzantine viewpoint dominates immaculate rows of barrels. In 1986, it launched the new era of design winery cellars, which has been increasing ever since.
Bertrand-Gabriel Vigouroux manages the vinification with great rigour: parcel and grape selection, each distributed in their individual vats, parcel by parcel, long stirring of the lees to extract the finest Malbec tannins, seeking the best harmony between wine and wood with tests on barrels from different origins.
Located on the third terraces of the Lot Valley, on the high 500.000 year old Mindel terrace, the Mercuès vineyard has the distinguishing feature of being composed of Causse limestone scree enriched with ancient alluvial, producing the most famous Cahors, which are rich with great ageing potential.