Chateau Layauga-Duboscq Classique, Medoc
Classic woodspice and bramble fruit on the nose, the palate is ripe and intense with smooth, spicy oak, cloves and iodine.
Certain of the quality of the soil of a small parcel at the heart of Château Layauga in Gaillan to the north of St Estephe, Henri and his sister Anne-Marie become major shareholders in 2006. They added 7 hectares in nearby Queyrac on the slope of La Hontane in 2007. The slope has good sun & and limestone-clay soil covered with gravel. Viticulture and wine-making is in the style of Haut-Marbuzet: hand-harvesting, low yields, long-maceration with daily remontage, 50% new French oak.
Henri Dubosq of Château Haut-Marbuzet, together with his sister Anne-Marie, came across two small parcels to the north Saint Estèphe. Convinced by the quality of the soil (gravel over limestone clay) and the potential of these two Mèdoc plots – one in the commune of Gaillan, where Château Layauga was founded in 1881; the other 6ha on the east facing slope of La Hontane in Queyrac – they bought them. Viticulture and wine-making techniques are drawn from Haut-Marbuzet but Château Layauga-Dubosq has its own very approachable style.
