Château La Patache: Vineyards
At the time of the purchase Château La Patache boasted a rather bijou 3.8-hectare vineyard. I believe included in the purchase there were some vines higher up on the plateau; these were cleaved off to create a new estate (more detail on which below). This left the estate today with nine parcels of vines, across 3.18 hectares. Of these nine parcels six lie to the west of the D1089, on soils which tend towards the more sandy (as shown below), with about 90 centimetres of sand superficially, with deeper crasse de fer. The vineyards sit behind the roadside maisons of Château du Castel and Château La Croix Taillefer, while a short distance to the north is the Barbanne, to the west is the expansive estate of Château de Sales, and to the south-west is the hamlet of Le Grand Moulinet where Clos René, Château L’Enclos and of Château Montviel are to be found.
The other three parcels lie east of the D1089, advancing a short way up the plateau, below Château Rouget, on more or less the same level as Château Latour à Pomerol, where the soils tend to be light gravel. All these parcels today remain part of the Patache vineyard portfolio. There was another plot slightly higher up the slope, directly opposite Château Clinet; the terroir here is a more favourable blue clay, quite different to the other plots, and many would say superior. The wine from this parcel had until 2011 been included in the wine of Château La Patache, but in 2012 the wine from this plot was held back, to be made and bottled separately. This was the beginning of the story of Enclos Tourmaline, a new estate on the plateau created by Peter Kwok.
