Château Le Gay
Standing on the Chemin de Chantecaille in October 2013 I surveyed the landscape of Pomerol that lay all around me. Just a few hundred metres away sat Château Le Gay, the pale-yellow-gold of the stone gleaming in the Autumn sunshine on what was a hot and humid day, so very typical of the 2013 harvest. Beyond lay Château du Domaine de l’Église and so, just around the corner, was Clos de l’Église and Château L’Église-Clinet. Turning round and walking back up towards Château Gazin, where I had left my hire car a few minutes earlier, Château Lafleur-Petrus and Château Lafleur-Gazin were to the left, while on the right was Château Lafleur and Petrus. As I reached Château Gazin, the rooftops of Vieux Château Certan and Château L’Évangile were just visible to the south, above the fading green-gold autumnal leaves of the vines.
Château Le Gay clearly has some illustrious neighbours; while there are wines of varying quality available from those names listed above, some are the very crème de la crème of the appellation. Château Le Gay is, it would seem, a Pomerol domaine worth knowing, and yet it is a château which I came to rather late in my explorations of Pomerol. This profile details its story, its terroir, how it fits within the Pomerol pecking order, and in particular how it copes with being one of a number of domaines – including several of those above, and others not mentioned – that sit on the very periphery of the Pomerol plateau, as the gravel and clay of the central section gives way to the lighter, sandy slopes that run down to the Barbanne. First, though, as is customary, I present the history of the domaine, or at least what little we know of it.
Origins
As is the case with many Pomerol estates, the exact origins of Château Le Gay, and in particular who was responsible for planting the first vines, is not known. Neither is there any good explanation for the name Le Gay, although, in view of the fact that other nearby properties including the twins Château La Fleur de Gay and Château La Croix de Gay as well as Château Vray Croix de Gay also reference the name, it seems likely that it relates to a historical figure of some significance in this region. What we do know is that during the 18th century the estate was one of many in the possession of Louis-Léonard Fontemoing, a négociant based in Libourne who owned huge swathes of land in the region. His is perhaps already a familiar name, having cropped up before in my history of the now defunct Providence, which was once part of the Tropchaud estate near the centre of Pomerol. Indeed, the Fontémoing family were important négociants and landowners who crop up in numerous St Emilion and Pomerol profiles.
