Château Fleur La Mothe: Vineyards
As already noted, Château Fleur La Mothe sits nestled within the village of Saint-Yzans-de-Médoc, high up on the Médoc peninsula. The cellars surround a small courtyard, on the south side of the village, behind which there is one parcel of vines belonging to the estate. Although there were once 17 hectares of vineyards here the property has since been downsized, and today Antoine Médeville and his team hold sway over 10 hectares in total, which for practical purposes they subdivide into five sections. All are situated close to the Gironde, which provides good protection from the modern-day scourge of the Bordeaux vineyard, frost.
The first of these is Le Château, the aforementioned parcel close to the cellars (and, as already mentioned, despite the name of the parcel, there is no real ‘château’ here). The second is Cimetière, logically close to the cemetery on the north side of the village, where the soils are a mix of sandy gravel and silt.
The third is Taillan, vineyards on the plateau close to the Gironde and which is blessed with clay and limestone soils, a hallmark of the region. This, says Emilien Delalande, one of the five running the estate, gives them some of their best fruit. Here they have planted predominantly Merlot, but also some Petit Verdot and a few Cabernets. The other two parcels are Petregne and Stade, with soils of clay and limestone, and clay and gravel, respectively.
