Château La Garde: Vineyards
Château La Garde is located in the commune of Martillac, surrounded by well-known names, although the most renowned of these is its next-door neighbour, Latour-Martillac, which sits less than one minute’s walk to the north. Directly south is Haut-Nouchet, and beyond that vines in the ownership of Les Carmes Haut-Brion, which were purchased from the owners of Haut-Nouchet in 2013; these vines are the source of that domaine’s ‘second’ wine, Le C de Carmes, and there is a dedicated winemaking facility built in the corner of the vineyard. Next to that lies Château de Cruzeau, while if you look beyond the suburbs to the west of the vineyard you will find Château de Rochemorin.
There are only a few hectares of vines around the cellars and château, nevertheless the vineyard in its entirety covers about 54 hectares. The extent of this considerable vineyard takes us eastwards, from the commune of Martillac into Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans, and at the foot of this vineyard there sit supplementary wine cellars.
The vineyard runs across three gravel croupes, with soils of clay, sand and silt of varying depths in the valleys between this trio of gravelly hills. As noted in my introduction, a series of detailed soil studies have divided this vineyard into 27 different soil types. The marriage between soil sand variety can be complex, but in essence
Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot do well on the higher and more gravelly soils, while lower and more silty-sandy soils might be better suited to Merlot.
