Château Bellevue Mondotte: Vineyards
Château Bellevue Mondotte can be found on the Saint-Christophe plateau, southeast of St Emilion, with the lesser-known Château Rochebelle, Château La Croizille and Château Godeau to the east. To the west, however, is Château Pavie-Decesse and below that Château Pavie, while directly to the north on the other side of the road is La Mondotte (which makes sense if the two have a common origin), Château Bellisle-Mondotte, L’If and Château Troplong-Mondot.
The little house here, which is dilapidated (although not beyond restoration I am sure) enjoys a spectacular position on the edge of the plateau, at an altitude of 80 metres, facing directly out across the sandy plains and the carpet of vines below, a carpet which runs all the way down to the Dordogne. It is not hard to imagine how Monsieur Augème came up with the Bellevue prefix for his new estate, but sadly today the view is entirely obscured by a thick copse of trees that cling to the limestone precipice here.
The vineyard is said by Gérard Perse and others to be considered an enclave of the now-defunct Château Pavie-Decesse, although the modern Pavie-Decesse was similarly diminutive (having ‘donated’ 6 hectares of its vineyards to Château Pavie in 2002, before being fully absorbed into the vineyards of its larger neighbour in 2022).
