Château Montrose: Vineyards
Under the tenure of Matthieu Dollfus the Montrose vineyard grew to reach a size of 65 hectares, and very little changed with subsequent owners, although this can not be said of the Bouygues brothers. They acquired a vineyard that accounted for 67 hectares, but under their tenure it has seen considerable expansion, so that today it covers 95 hectares of the St Estèphe appellation. Much of this increase in surface area has been accounted for by the purchase in 2010 of 22 hectares (of which 21.5 hectares were planted with vines) from Thierry Gardinier of Château Phélan-Ségur, which lies just to the north of Montrose. This catapulted the Bouygues brothers to the top of the St Estèphe league table as far as vineyard ownership goes, as with their other estate Château Tronquoy-Lalande they now have well in excess of 100 hectares within this appellation. It also puts Château Montrose at the top of any land valuation table; at a price of €900,000 per hectare this was the most paid per hectare for any St Estèphe transaction, although such figures are much closer to the norm in Pauillac or St Julien.
The vineyards are beautifully positioned on a slope running right down to the Gironde in the south-eastern corner of the St Estèphe commune, in a single block surrounding the château.
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