Château Boyd-Cantenac: Vineyards
The estate today boasts 17 hectares of vines, planted at a density of 10,000 vines per hectare, the care of which falls to proprietor Lucien Guillemet and manager Jérôme Blavy. The soils have a very lean and gravelly nature typical of the Médoc, very consistent across the entire estate although with some areas tending towards more sand than gravel, but there is certainly very little in the way of clay. The vines are about 40-years old on average, and are predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon (at 60% of the total), the remaining varieties Merlot which stands at 25%, Cabernet Franc 8% and Petit Verdot 7%. As for viticultural philosophy, Lucien dislikes what he describes as “the dogmatism of the organic way of thinking“, with particular concerns about the destructive capabilities of copper, which is widely used in organic farming.
Nevertheless it is clear he is concerned for the sustainability of his land, and for the methods of his viticulture. There has been no chemical fertiliser used here for decades, and he has explored new methods for dealing with vineyard diseases and pests, including the use of phosphoric acid to treat downy mildew.
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