Château de Malle: Vineyards
The vineyards of Château de Malle extend across three communes, Toulenne, Preignac and Fargues. Clearly only the latter two qualify for Sauternes, the appellation covering five communes in total (the others being Sauternes itself, Bommes and Barsac); the presence of Toulenne tells us that the estate also has vines beyond the appellation’s borders which, as it happens, qualify for the Graves appellation. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this profile, I will concentrated solely on the Sauternes vines.
There are 50 hectares of vines altogether, although of these only 25 hectares are within the Sauternes communes. Of this 25 hectares of vines 69% are Semillon, 28% are Sauvignon Blanc and 3% are Muscadelle; they have an average age between 30 and 40 years and are planted at a density of 6,000 vines per hectare. The soils underfoot, meanwhile, are a mix of sand, clay and limestone.
Until recently the viticulture has been, to the best of my knowledge, entirely conventional. With the arrival of new blood in the form of Luc Planty, however, fresh from Château Guiraud which has had certified organic status for many years, we can be fairly certain that Château de Malle will be joining the ranks of organic adherents in Bordeaux.
