Ep 389: Chateau Doyac and the Diversity of Terroir in the Haut-Medoc of Bordeaux

<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://chateaudoyac.fr" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img style= "display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/45638/IMG_7020-1-scaled-700x650.jpeg" alt="" width="255" height="236" /><em><span style= "font-size: 8pt;">Photo: Château Doyac</span></em></a></p> <p style="text-align: left;"><br /> In our continued exploration of the Médoc (which will culminate in two free, live, online classes that I hope you'll join or watch on YouTube afterwards), on the Left Bank of Bordeaux, I spoke with Astrid de Pourtalès, co-owner of <a href="https://chateaudoyac.fr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Château Doyac.</a> This property is a Cru Bourgeois Supérieur located in the northernmost part of the Haut-Médoc appellation that is unlike what you think of when you consider this region. This show presents a high level overview of a different part of the Médoc (versus <a href= "https://winefornormalpeople.libsyn.com/ep-385-anne-le-nour">Château Meyney, where Anne Le Naour gives a very detailed view of St-Estèphe</a>) and a nice view of what a family owned château is like in the region.</p> <p> </p> <p>Astrid de Pourtalès owns the château with her husband Max and her daughter Clémance. She discusses her experiences in being fairly new to Bordeaux after a career in the New York theater scene (they bought <a href="https://chateaudoyac.fr" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Château Doyac</a> in 1998) and the bold move that Max made to transition Doyac to an ECOCERT certified organic vineyard in 2018 and then a Demeter certified biodynamic vineyard in 2019 (this is no small feat in Bordeaux, which has an erratic climate, we don’t go into extensive detail but it is an interesting contrast to the show with <a href= "https://winefornormalpeople.libsyn.com/ep-387-veramonte">Sofía Araya of Veramonte in Chile</a> who discusses biodynamics in that easier to farm area).</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://chateaudoyac.fr" target="_blan