Terroir

Pavie Macquin is situated on a plateau, next to the hill of Mondot and on the edge of the Fongaban rift. The vineyard sits at an altitude of between 75 and 100 metres at its highest point. A single tenant, its neighbour to the west is Troplong Mondot with Chateau Pavie (1er G.C.C.) to the south, while to the north lies Trottevieille (1er G.C.C.).

Nicolas Thienpont’s other sites
Château Pavie Macquin
Château Larcis Ducasse
Château Bellevue
Château Les Charmes Godard
Château Puygueraud
Château La Prade

We find ourselves, therefore, in very good company, in a sector of particularly high quality with soils peculiar to the chalk plateau, which tend towards deep and heavy at the top of the hill while thinner and lighter near the base of the slope.

The soils, all clay-chalk in origin, express through the vine different notions of terroir according to their geographical situation and the nature of the clays, as well as and above all, their proximity to the chalk layer which runs between 20 cm and 1,5 metres below the surface. The shallow depth of the soil throughout a large part of the vineyard allows it to express the mineral characters which are not always present in the deeper soils nearer the summit of the hill (the red soils).
 

Cartography of the area has determined about nine different soil types. This general overview doubled as scientific research into the physical attributes of the soils, their geological organisation and their biological functionality allowing us to define a specific model of cultivation and vinification for each soil type giving with it a certain continuity of style and thus insuring the longevity of the terroir.

It is these soils, based on chalk rock with its strong clays that gives our wine its strength, body and generosity.