Château Paloumey
The lower communes of the Médoc peninsula, just to the south of the Margaux appellation, provide a happy hunting ground for those interested in looking beyond the most famous classified châteaux for classically styled left-bank wines. There is quality here, one reason for which is the terroir, the communes of Ludon-Médoc, Labarde, Macau and the like being rich in gravelly soils mimicking those of more famous appellations to the north.
These deep beds of gravel are not only of interest to wine drinkers, as it was only a few decades ago they were plundered as a source of building material. After decades of planning and a few false starts, in 1960 construction of the Pont d’Aquitaine, the giant suspension bridge which spans the Garonne north of the city of Bordeaux, finally got underway. Pockets of Médoc gravel were excavated and used as aggregate, and the numerous small quarries that resulted today exist as ponds and lakes, the spaces having since filled with water, often of a curiously opaque aqua hue.
One such small quarry lake sits west of Ludon, just across the road from Château Paloumey (pictured below), home to Pierre Cazeneuve. For many years Pierre maintained an admirable morning routine which involved sprinting across the road to dive into the lake for an early morning swim. Sadly, in recent years it is a practice Pierre no longer adheres to, possibly because he now instead dedicates every waking hour to his vineyard and wine. Or, just possibly, the local authorities suggested open-water swimming in the icy cold water of a disused quarry was not safe.
Please log in to continue reading: