Château Fonréaud: Vineyards
As note in my introduction, Château Fonréaud sits on a small hill, the Puy de Menjon, overlooking the main road north on the Médoc peninsula, as it slices through the Listrac-Médoc appellation. There is a small stream which runs through the estate, passing beneath the road, named Le Caput. Who knows, perhaps it was this stream from which that English king drank his fill back in the 11th century? As noted, the hill rises to 43 metres above sea level, widely accepted as being the highest point in the Médoc.
The relationship between vineyard and appellation here is a curious one, something to which I have already alluded in this profile. This is a property with a long history, the vine cultivated here throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, long before the words appellation contrôlée entered the mind of the father of the system, Baron Pierre Le Roy de Boiseaumarie (1890 – 1967). When the region ‘s appellations were drawn up during the 20th century the Fonréaud vineyard was sliced in two by the boundary between the Moulis-en-Médoc and Listrac-Médoc appellations. For this reason, the portfolio of wines made here is somewhat complex.
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