Château Quinault L’Enclos: Vineyards
Looking back a couple of decades, before I had ever laid eyes on the vineyards of St Emilion and Pomerol, every news story I read about Château Quinault L’Enclos seemed to suggest the vines were planted in a supermarket car park. The property was always “behind a supermarket” or “on gravelly soils, adjacent to a large supermarket”, the implication being, perhaps, that there was a certain lack of romanticism here. Having since visited the estate I can understand why such statements were made, although they are rather superficial. The vineyard is indeed nestled among the suburbs of Libourne, but the idea that it is hidden in the shadow of a hypermarché is a ludicrous one.
Turning off the D670, the main road which runs southeast out of Libourne past St Emilion and on to Castillon, the Avenue du Parc des Sports does indeed take you past a large branch of Intermarche, as well as an impressive sports centre, but the road is mostly lined with suburban housing. At the far end the road terminates at the Boulevard de Quinault, and on the opposite side the vines of Château Quinault L’Enclos can clearly be seen. Driving around the estate it is indeed surrounded on all four sides by housing. To the south, however, this is sparse, the suburban sprawl soon giving way to vineyards, which spread out on the alluvial land within a huge meandering loop of the Dordogne, which lies in close proximity to the vineyard.
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