Couvent des Jacobins: Vineyards
Today the Couvent des Jacobins vineyards amounts to 10.7 hectares of the St Emilion appellation, although sadly I do not believe these are the original vines which the monks tended up until the end of the 18th century. This vineyard has been gathered together in more recent times, and although there are well over sixty distinct parcels of vines, these are located in four principal sites which are dotted around the town.
The bulk of the vineyard, 6 hectares all told, are located at the foot of the limestone slopes which run down from Château Bellevue, close to Château Angélus and, of course, the cellars of the more modern Jean family project, Calicem. Of the remaining 4.7 hectares, there is another 1 hectare on the plateau, on a classic clay and limestone terroir, and another 0.5 hectare of vines on clay soils very close to the entrance to the town, and thus not far from the couvent’s cellars. This latter parcel is notable for being planted to Petit Verdot, not a variet that is commonly encountered in the St Emilion vineyard, but it is a distinctive part of the Couvent des Jacobins DNA which comes through in the structured, cellar-worthy wines.
A fourth and final parcel of vines is located on the more sandy soils that sit out on the plain, below the town, in this case close to the railway station. There are several hectares here, where Xavier and Denis are planting more and more Cabernet Franc. Other scattered parcels mean the mix of terroirs here is complex, with the aforementioned clay, limestone and sand all in different proportions, as well as Molasses du Fronsadais.
