Domaine de la Grave can host seminars, team-building days, weddings, christenings and birthdays for up to 100 guests standing or 90 in conference style. The estate offers three rooms that can run side by side, so a plenary session and smaller workshops fit on the same day. It is a family wine property run by the Roche family at 13 route de Perriche in Beychac-et-Caillau, in the Entre-deux-Mers east of Bordeaux.
Seminars and company events
The estate rents its rooms on their own or helps with the rest of the program. It can suggest a caterer and add activities drawn from its wine business: a visit of the wine and cooperage workshop, a ride through the vines on a small train, a commented tasting with the owner, a picnic in the vineyard, or a pruning or harvest workshop depending on the season. Each room comes with chairs, tables, a projection screen and Wi-Fi.
The Pavilion takes the plenary session, the Salon in the main house suits a quiet meeting or a board session, and the Workshop works for a seminar lunch, a working session or a talk. Two large parking areas take about 50 cars.
Weddings and receptions
The estate hosts weddings, christenings and birthdays. Couples can hire the whole property and its reception rooms for the weekend: the Pavilion, the Salon, the caterer's kitchen and the outdoor spaces. The lawns can take a secular ceremony or a cocktail, and the courtyard front of the house works for photographs or the reception drink. The Workshop can be added as an option for the dance floor, with a sound limit of 80 decibels. Tables and chairs are provided.
Rooms and capacities
The Pavilion covers 120 square meters under a roof, with a wooden terrace. Its side walls can be removed to open the room onto the vines. It holds 100 standing, 90 in conference style or 80 seated for a meal, and comes with ten round barrel tables for eight and 100 chairs. The Salon covers 40 square meters inside the house and takes 40 in conference style, or oval tables for 6 to 20. It sits two meters from the Pavilion and is often used as a children's room or extra service space. The Workshop covers 70 square meters and holds 60 standing or 50 in conference style.
Catering
There is no in-house restaurant. Events use an outside caterer, with a caterer's kitchen on site, and the team can recommend one. Wines come from the estate.
History and setting
Joseph Roche, a wine merchant, bought the house, a chartreuse with a 4-hectare vineyard, in 1876. He added two slate-roofed towers, which give the building its château look, and the bell that once called the faithful still marks the work of the vineyard. The property has carried the name Domaine de la Grave since 1900, after its white gravel slopes facing south. Five generations have followed, and David and Marie-Laure Roche run it today. The oldest vines date from 1923. The family opened a wine and cooperage museum on site in 2003, and some of the red wine ages in barrels inside a former stone quarry 15 meters underground, at 13°C all year.
Getting there
The estate sits on the road between Bordeaux and Saint-Émilion, about 20 minutes from each, and 2 minutes from an exit of the RN89.
