Château de Sales: Vineyards
Château de Sales occupies the northernmost and westernmost point of the Pomerol appellation, situated well to the west of the D1089, the road which runs along the foot of the Pomerol slope. As already noted, this is by far the largest property in the appellation, with 90 hectares of land, home to 47.6 hectares of vines. Such is the extent of the vineyard, which stretches across the open landscape in a huge block to the south of the château, a stark contrast to the undulating patchwork quilt of micro-domaines found on the slopes and plateau, it is somewhat disorientating.
The size of the estate is remarkable, especially as it covers almost the same area as it did when in the hands of the Sauvanelle and Desaigues families, in the pre-Revolutionary era. Only 3 hectares, which could not be recovered by Gabrielle Desaigues, are missing. Of note, I believe it also extends across the Barbanne to the north, with a small parcel in the Lalande-de-Pomerol appellation. The harvest from these vines is regularly upgraded to Pomerol by derogation, and will be while the château remains in the hands of the current proprietors.
Predictably, this far off the Pomerol slope, the terroir is predominantly fine gravel and sand dotted with the occasional pebble or galet, alluvial deposits brought and dropped here by the waters of the Isle during the Pleistocene (the last 1.8 million years, so in geological terms very recent). The soils also feature some of the famous crasse de fer which characterises some of the more sandy and gravelly Pomerol vineyards.
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