In the middle of the 17th century, Arnaud Ducasse bought a small house, on the banks of the Gironde estuary, to Jacques de Ségur, Seigneur of Lafite. He could hardly had imagined then that it would be the start of a superb estate that would remain in his family for almost three centuries.
Around 1820, he had the existing château built, on the site of his ancestors' house, facing the Gironde estuary. The vineyard's 40 hectares (99 acres) are divided between three main plots which lie on sandy Garonne gravel within the Pauillac appellation.
The vines border those of Mouton Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild and Pontet-Canet to the North. In their central part, they cover part of the Bourdieu of Grand Puy, and, at their southern extremity, the Saint-Lambert plateau.
As from 1980, the winery was equipped with a new vatting house, including sorting tables and other facilities for handling the harvest. In 1991, the sorting tables were moved into the vineyards, in order to improve the quality of hand-picking. In 2004, CA Grands Crus, a subsidiary of the Groupe Crédit Agricole, acquired Château Grand Puy Ducasse. An improvement plan was put together for the entire estate. It is supervised today by Anne Le Naour, the Executive Director, and the consultant oenologist, Hubert de Bouärd.