Château La Fleur de Boüard: Vineyards
Château La Fleur de Boüard is located just off the road up to Bertineau, and is surrounded by its vineyards. Just to the north is the Ruisseau de Maurice, which defines the northern limit of the commune of Néac. There are about 30 hectares to the estate surrounding the chai (as seen below, from the upper floor), although of these only 25 hectares are planted up and in production.
As indicated in my introduction the terroir here in Lalande-de-Pomerol tends to mirror that in Pomerol, featuring gravel and clay rather than the limestone of St Emilion and its satellites. In the vineyards of Château La Fleur de Boüard there are broadly two soil types; first, there are 17 hectares planted on clay and deeper gravel, on the Néac plateau. Secondly, there are another 8 hectares planted on soils of pebbles and clay. The soils are perhaps not as profound as those just to the south, in Pomerol, but they are of good quality all the same.
The vines are 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and they are approximately 25 years old. When the estate was acquired the planting was very low-density, about 3,500 vines per hectare. Low-density planting was not that uncommon during the 20th century, I suspect because the planting of very wide rows facilitated access to the vineyard using basic agricultural tractors. Today more dedicated vignerons often increase the planting density of recently purchased vineyards, usually by planting new vines between pre-existing rows, and use machinery adapted to the vineyard (or, in a handful of cases, horses).
