Château Pape-Clément: Vineyards
Château Pape-Clément is located very close to the Rocade, the Bordeaux ring road, and is surrounded by suburban housing on all sides. This is an island of viticulture, isolated within a sea of barking dogs and twitching net curtains. The vineyards account for 32.8 hectares of the Pessac-Léognan appellation, and run very roughly on an east-west axis, the château itself about halfway along, on the northern side, overlooking the Avenue Paul Montagne. Just directly to the north, secreted between bungalows and garages, are a few other plots of vines, although I do not believe they are part of the Château Pape-Clément estate. And about 2 kilometres in the same direction lies Château Pique-Caillou, and a similar distance to the east is Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion and Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion.
There are three distinct terroirs across the estate. In general the soils are typical of the region, with classic Pessac-Léognan gravels lying over a limestone bedrock which originated in the Oligocene and Miocene eras. Looking at three sections of the vineyard reveals some differences though; towards the western end the soils are more sandy, albeit with a deep seam of gravel. Those to the east, meanwhile, have an increasingly significant amount of clay along with the gravel, whereas the soils along the northern edge of the estate are said to be particularly thin and poor (and so ideal for the vine, naturally). The picture below was taken in the northern section, clearly indicating the presence of some gravel here as well.
