When Philip and Sarah Iles moved into Château Lezongars in the countryside outside Bordeaux 11 years ago, the wine from the estate had not been bottled for years. Owned by a pharmaceutical company, the wine was instead sold in bulk, to be mixed with other wines, and sold cheaply. Now, however, the vineyard’s 111 acres produce about 200,000 bottles a year, four red wines, two whites and one rosé. One of the Château’s red wines, L’Enclos de Château Lezongars 2001, won the Gold List in the Bordeaux section of the Sommelier Wine Awards 2007.

Now the Iles are returning to England, so Château Lezongars is back on the market for €3.6 million, excluding stock.

The couple bought the property in 1998, after years of running brasseries and wine bars in the City. It was after one of their restaurants was severely damaged in the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing that they decided it was time to leave. Swapping their home in Wimbledon for the South of France, they spent two years searching for the perfect property.

Location was key: they wanted to be near enough to Bordeaux to pop in for dinner and close enough to a city from which they could travel back to London. The house itself is in the heart of the wine country with spectacular views over the Garonne valley. Despite its rural location, the château is only a half-hour drive from the centre of Bordeaux and a short drive from the airport. London is only five or six hours by train.

“You could live here and work remotely through your BlackBerry, and travel to London for business,” Philip said.

Soon after moving in, the couple decided to improve the vintage, so started testing the soil throughout the estate to see what they should be growing. The vineyard is now planted with 60 per cent merlot, 30 per cent cabernet sauvignon and a further hectare of semillon. Everything is done on site. An old barn and some newer buildings on the edge of the estate house the château’s wine-production equipment. The main house, built in about 1800, has six bedrooms and a number of large reception rooms, including a wood-panelled library. The couple use the house for wine tastings and there is also a three-bedroom cottage on the property.

Wine from the estate retails at anywhere between £8 and £25.

Sotheby’s International Realty +33 5 56 79 63 62; sothebysrealty.com