La Mothe de Margaux existed as a distinct property in the 12th Century, and was set up as a wine estate in the 1570s, as farmers in the Médoc began to abandon cereal crops in favor of vines. In 1705, the London Gazette advertised the first auction of 230 barrels of “Margose”, and, in 1787, Thomas Jefferson made his famous visit to Bordeaux and identified Margaux as one of the “four vineyards of first quality”. By 1800, the estate occupied 265 hectares (655 acres) with a third planted to vines, which remains the situation today. The iconic neo-palladian château, nicknamed “The Versailles of the Médoc”, was built in the early 1800s to match the reputation of the vineyard.