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, at the time 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. This block includes the vines purchased from Phélan-Ségur, which are in a lieu-dit named Fontpetite. That the Phélan vines should slot so neatly into the Montrose block should perhaps not come as a surprise; it seems that these vines were once part of the Montrose vineyard, so this recent acquisition could perhaps be viewed as bringing these lost vines back into the fold. The terroir underfoot is largely gravelly (as shown in the picture above), this being the most northerly of the great gravel croupes which run alongside the Gironde and which have proved to be such perfect soils for the red grapes of Bordeaux. Nevertheless there is some variation across the vineyard, with some areas of clay and more sandy, alluvial influences closer to the water. But it is the deep swathe of gravel that dominates.
