Château de Camensac: Vineyards
The vineyards of Château de Camensac are on a gravelly elevation in the commune of Saint-Laurent-Médoc, in the Haut-Médoc appellation, sitting almost contiguous with the vineyards of St Julien. To the east, beyond a copse of trees, lie the vineyards of Château Lagrange. It is only the most eastern section of the vineyard, the few parcels that lie east of the railway line (the Lagrange Haut and Lagrange Bas parcels), that touch the boundary though; most of the Haut-Médoc–St Julien boundary line runs along the edge of the grounds of Château Belgrave, which sits directly to the north. To the west the ground slopes away dramatically, down to the vineyards of Château La Tour Carnet. The ground also slopes away to the south, although here it gives way to the marais, the marshy scrubland that borders the Chenal du Milieu, one of the major drainage channels that runs west-east here, towards the Gironde.
On an estate covering 150 hectares there are 75 hectares of vineyard in production, the remainder of the estate dedicated to woodland and pasture. These 75 hectares are divided between 123 parcels, across four broad types of terroir. There are two broad parcels of gravel identified, the first of which is centred around the vineyard’s highest point, along the north-eastern edge of the estate, where the vines sit at the heady altitude of 23 metres above sea level. Here the soils have the gravelly substance that is typical of the Médoc, so often said to be Günzian but in truth many such gravel beds have a more recent origin, having been deposited during the Mindel and Riss interglacial periods. Then further down the slope, to the west and south, including around the château, there are gravels deposited here during the Villafranchian period, older gravels as much as four million years old.
