Château Monbousquet: Vineyards
Château Monbousquet is located about three kilometres south and west of the town of St Emilion; this doesn’t sound far, but of course it is more than enough distance to take us down the slope of the limestone plateau and onto the sandy plain that lies between the côtes and the Dordogne. There are no famous neighbours here, and although I am tempted to relate the estate to other châteaux located on the sandy plain, such as Château Teyssier and Château Val d’Or, both to the south-east in Vignonet, these are in fact even further away than the A-listers to be found on the plateau. This reflects the fact that the sandy terroirs of St Emilion cover several thousands of hectares, and are far and away the largest part of the appellation. I also suspect I would not be thanked for making the analogy.
The soils of the Monbousquet estate are a mix of gravel and sand (as shown below), the gravel dominating in the southern section, the northern section more marked by sand. Having explored these more northern parts of the vineyard I can certainly testify to the sandy nature of the soils, as illustrated in the image below. The vineyards lie in a very large block around the château, which as already indicated in my introduction sits among formal and less structured tree-lined gardens.
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