Roc de Cambes: Vineyards
The vineyards of Roc de Cambes are to be found in the Côtes de Bourg appellation, on the right bank of Bordeaux. The town of Bourg, complete with its 18th-century citadel built by Etienne Dardan dit Francoeur, overlooks the last gasp of the Dordogne, just 500 metres before its confluence with the Garonne, the two long rivers finally coming together here at the start of the Gironde estuary. This puts it directly north of the city of Bordeaux, and some way downstream of the famous appellations of St Emilion and Pomerol. St Emilion, where Château Tertre Roteboeuf is to be found, is some 35 kilometres distant, to the southeast.
The vignerons of the Côtes de Bourg appellation look out across the water to the prestigious vineyards of Margaux and the Haut-Médoc vineyards gathered around Macau. Nevertheless, the two regions could not be more different. The Médoc appellations are at their greatest where gravel dominates, but here in and around Bourg it is the limestone that counts. Roc de Cambes sits on the periphery of the town of Bourg, in the shadow of its citadel. The vines are anchored to a slope of limestone and clay which careers down to a short stretch of flat land that then runs right to the water’s edge. With regard to the vines on the slopes in particular, they benefit from this terroir in several fashions, in their aspect and exposure to the rays of the sun, the sheltering effect of the amphitheatre in which they sit, and in terms of drainage. Those on the flatter land are not so advantaged; the former have the Côtes de Bourg appellation, while those on the flatter land are generic Bordeaux.
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