Château Yon-Figeac: Vineyards
As I alluded in my introduction to this profile, Château Yon-Figeac sits a short distance from the road which runs westwards from St Emilion out towards Libourne. It is set well back though, at the side of a narrow lane which cuts through the vineyards, and so you will have to do some exploring if you wish to find it. Near neighbours of note include, closer to the town, Château Laroze, Château Grand Mayne and Château Franc Mayne, while heading out towards Libourne there is Château Grand Barrail Lamarzelle Figeac and of course Château La Marzelle, which sits directly behind its rather grander companion. The heart of the estate is the diminutive château which, with is octagonal tower complete with octagonal pointed roof, looks somewhat like a miniature version of Château Cheval Blanc (provided you squint a bit, and before LVMH built the huge space age cellars, obviously).
Today there are 24.5 hectares of vines here, planted on superficial silty and sandy soils (not completely dissimilar to those on the lower slopes of Pomerol, hence my earlier comments), with deeper sandy clay. For the St Emilion appellation this is a particularly large vineyard, especially when we take into account the fact that the vines sit in a single block surrounding the château.
Please log in to continue reading: