Château Cos d’Estournel, 2017 Update: Terroir & Tasting
As we continued our journey around the vineyards the work of Professor Gérard Seguin in Bordeaux came to mind. It was he that described the basic structure of the soils in this region, his studies revealing that the gravel croupes on which the greatest grand cru châteaux rest are in fact interspersed with lenses of clay and sand. It is this ‘deep drainage’, as well as the ability of a mature vine to access deep reservoirs of water in these lenses using long, well-established roots, that really matters. Thus, when it comes to talk of terroir, it may be that we should focus on these deeper soils (and the underlying bedrock), and I wondered whether such a detailed examination of relatively superficial soils using resistivity is pointless. I put this to Aymeric.
“The deep roots are really important for access to water reserves. We dug a test pit and we were down five to six metres before we hit the water table, and in a vintage such as 2016 it was vital for vines to be able to access that, but 90% of the roots only penetrate to a depth of one metre, so these more superficial soils are important. It is these that support the vine.”
I suspect the truth is that both superficial soils and deeper soils are important, and that both need to be considered for any discussion on terroir to be complete. Although, if I may digress for a moment, I was interested to note that for Aymeric and Dominique the definition of terroir goes far beyond consideration of only the soils. Other influences on terroir they take into account include the wind – it moves the leaves around, increasing exposure to light, as well as the Gironde itself. At St Estèphe the estuary is seven kilometres wide, which raises the local temperatures by 2-3ºC in winter, and brings them down by 2-3ºC in the height of summer. They also believe the man or woman who works the land to be part of terroir, a controversial view perhaps, although they are certainly not alone in subscribing to this belief.
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