Château Couhins: Vineyards
Château Couhins is located in Villenave d’Ornon, one of the most northerly of all the communes of the Pessac-Léognan appellation. Looking at aerial maps of the commune today it is given over almost entirely to suburban housing, although looking back at old editions of Cocks et Féret there were once numerous estates to be found here. Those that survive, such as Château Couhins, Château Couhins-Lurton and Château Carbonnieux all sit on the very southern periphery of the commune, next to Léognan and Cadaujac. Other neighbours, all located to the south of the estate, also include Château Haut-Vigneau and Château Bouscaut.
The estate amounts to 45 hectares, more-or-less what the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique acquired from the sale in the 1970s, and the area planted to the vine has grown from 2 hectares to 25 hectares. There are 6 hectares dedicated to white varieties, mostly Sauvignon Blanc but there is a small percentage of Sauvignon Gris, as well as some recently-planted Semillon, all planted at a density of 7,000 vines per hectare. The Semillon has yielded enough fruit for commercial use only since the 2013 vintage, so prior to that the wine was pure Sauvignon. There are 19 hectares planted to the red vines, which are the usual mix of Bordeaux varieties, led by Merlot which accounts for 49% of the vineyard, with 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.
There are two principal terroirs, gravel and limestone, with a third intermediary terroir. The gravel terroir is a high croupe, an east-west ridge at an altitude of 41 metres above sea level. Underneath the gravel there is a very compact clay subsoil, and during planting the INRA team had to work hard to break up this compacted layer in order to facilitate a better rooting of the vines. This terroir of gravel on clay is said to be good for Cabernet Sauvignon, and although I don’t immediately associate Cabernet Sauvignon with clay it is perhaps worth remembering that many of the great gravel croupes of the Médoc, where Cabernet Sauvignon does so well, enjoying the drainage and the reflected heat of the gravel, are in fact mounds of gravel layered with lenses of compacted sand and clay, so perhaps this terroir is not that different.
