Château Olivier: Vineyards
As indicated in my introduction, Château Olivier is located just north of the town of Léognan, in a pocket of forest and vineyards that sits between Léognan, Gradignan and Villenave d’Ornon. Its only direct neighbour is Château Brown, directly to the north, a narrow lane surfaced with a rough, gravelly tarmac separating the two. Otherwise, the nearest neighbours are the string of properties that lie along to the road between Léognan and Cadaujac, to the south east, including Château Haut-Bailly, Château la Louvière and Château Carbonnieux.
The entire estate accounts for 220 hectares, the majority of which is forest, pasture and grazing land, with the vineyards amounting to 55 hectares in all. Under the rule of the De Bethmann family the vines were once leased to the Eschenhauer firm, although this arrangement ceased in 1981, Eschenhauer eventually losing their exclusive distribution rights in 1987. Today the estate is managed on behalf of the family by Laurent Lebrun, who holds sway over all the vines, which are planted on a complex composition of terroirs, including Günzian gravel, clay and limestone dating to the Miocene, with areas of quartz, flint and other minerals. Château Olivier is just one of six château entitled to produce both red and white wines under the Graves classification of 1959, although under Eschenhauer the focus was most certainly on the white wines.
