The Vineyard
Château de Lamarque is a delightful Haut-Médoc property which is situated on the left bank of the Gironde, to the north of Margaux, on the south of Pauillac and Saint-Julien. Pierre-Gilles and Marie-Hélène Gromand d’Evry are determined to make the best Haut-Médoc wine possible here and have done their utmost to achieve this goal.
Because the quality of the harvest and the nurturing of the vines is essential to the finished wine, Marie-Hélène Gromand d'evry took steps to improve vineyard practices. Production has been savaged under her jurisdiction as she has introduced an extremely rigorous regime of crop thinning. The results show in the concentration of successive Château de Lamarque vintages.
This involves researching, monitoring and assessing the vines from sub-soil through to the grapes. A great deal of painstaking work and investment has gone into plotting a minutely detailed map of the vineyard, parcel by parcel, which has enabled a much greater understanding of the diversity of soils and how best to look after the vines. The results are already exciting and they now underpin the future-planting program of the Château. Cabernet Franc, deemed too capricious, will give way to increased proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and an elevated 12% to 15% of Petit Verdot.
Because the quality of the harvest and the nurturing of the vines is essential to the finished wine, Marie-Hélène Gromand d'evry took steps to improve vineyard practices. Production has been savaged under her jurisdiction as she has introduced an extremely rigorous regime of crop thinning. The results show in the concentration of successive Château de Lamarque vintages.
This involves researching, monitoring and assessing the vines from sub-soil through to the grapes. A great deal of painstaking work and investment has gone into plotting a minutely detailed map of the vineyard, parcel by parcel, which has enabled a much greater understanding of the diversity of soils and how best to look after the vines. The results are already exciting and they now underpin the future-planting program of the Château. Cabernet Franc, deemed too capricious, will give way to increased proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and an elevated 12% to 15% of Petit Verdot.
The Terroir
The vineyards covers thirty-five hectares, planted on alluvial gravel with a sub-soil of clay, sandstone and red gravels, deep and well-drained.
The Château's vineyards lie in three distinctive plots each on a gravel mound. One parcel lies within Lamarque village, just behind the church. A second is opposite Château Malescasse, further south, and then there is a sizeable parcel to the west of the road north. This part of Château de Lamarque borders Moulis and counts Châteaux Poujeaux, Maucaillou and Chasse-Spleen amongs its neighbours. |
GRAPPE VARIETIES
The varietal planting is 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot but the proportion of each in the finished wine will vary every vintage, dependent both on the conditions of the harvest and on the percentage of vin de presse used. It is worth noting that since 1998 the proportion of Cabernet Franc has gradually been reduced at Château de Lamarque in favour of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, for qualitative reasons. Recently the blend has been around 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot and 5% Petit-Verdot, with the Cabernet Franc going into the property’s second wine.
COUSINIÉ METHODE: « More nutritional balance with fewer treatments » - Jean-Pierre Cousinié
Having decided to concentrate on the vineyard, questions inevitably arise as to how to maximise the quality of the crop, while respecting and safeguarding the land for future generations. Château de Lamarque leans ever closer towards organic viticulture and for fifteen years the Gromand d’Evrys have exercised a revolutionary viticultural system devised by Jean-Pierre Cousinié. The vines are healthier, more resistant to disease without recourse to chemicals, and better able to await later harvests so that full phenolic maturation can be achieved. Any treatments used are balanced and very precise.
Interactive, the Méthode Cousinié® summarizes the experiences that Mr Cousinié has undergone, observations in vineyards, and his extensive exchanges of ideas with grapegrowers, farm supervisors, winecellar masters and managers. "I have created a chart for analyses and specific actions. These make it possible for my partners and me to work within the vineyard in a precise and carefully-paced fashion".
The Méthode Cousinié® illustrates the essential notion of a "perfectly-balanced biological sphere”. This implies a global means of reflection, a more environmental approach to agriculture, with carefully-measured and effective nutritional and corrective solutions.
It simultaneously allows for soil balance to be restored, for the natural defense abilities of vines to be reinforced, and for the intrinsic qualities of the grape to be improved.
The perspectives opened up by the Méthode Cousinié® have inspired us to seek scientific partners skilled at carrying out comprehensive analyses (soils, subsoils, wood, limbs, leaves, grapes). Soil analyses establish the biochemical map of the soil and subsoil, revealing to us the personality of the land.
Leaf, berry and wood analyses provide 2 levels of information for us:
The Méthode Cousinié® certified laboratory ensures that we will obtain highly reliable results from a technical and scientific standpoint, these being conditions necessary for a painstaking and relevant interpretation.
A method Chateau de Lamarque has applied since 1995.
To learn more on Méthode Cousinié® , please follow this link.
Interactive, the Méthode Cousinié® summarizes the experiences that Mr Cousinié has undergone, observations in vineyards, and his extensive exchanges of ideas with grapegrowers, farm supervisors, winecellar masters and managers. "I have created a chart for analyses and specific actions. These make it possible for my partners and me to work within the vineyard in a precise and carefully-paced fashion".
The Méthode Cousinié® illustrates the essential notion of a "perfectly-balanced biological sphere”. This implies a global means of reflection, a more environmental approach to agriculture, with carefully-measured and effective nutritional and corrective solutions.
It simultaneously allows for soil balance to be restored, for the natural defense abilities of vines to be reinforced, and for the intrinsic qualities of the grape to be improved.
The perspectives opened up by the Méthode Cousinié® have inspired us to seek scientific partners skilled at carrying out comprehensive analyses (soils, subsoils, wood, limbs, leaves, grapes). Soil analyses establish the biochemical map of the soil and subsoil, revealing to us the personality of the land.
Leaf, berry and wood analyses provide 2 levels of information for us:
- Leaf diseases and thus their corrective treatment or supplementary nutrition requirements.
- The status of the varieties, their characteristics and the “real life” of the vinestock.
The Méthode Cousinié® certified laboratory ensures that we will obtain highly reliable results from a technical and scientific standpoint, these being conditions necessary for a painstaking and relevant interpretation.
A method Chateau de Lamarque has applied since 1995.
To learn more on Méthode Cousinié® , please follow this link.