FRONSAC
HISTORY /
/ ARCHITECTURE
GREAT WINES /
/ LANDSCAPES
Fronsac - The Secret Garden of Bordeaux
Nested and inseparable by their geography and geology, the vineyards of Fronsac and Canon Fronsac cover a confidential area of 1000 hectares in one of the most unique places in the Bordeaux vineyards.
Hillsides, valleys, foothills, ridges, mounds and valleys sculpt this territory with its remarkable topography and give our vineyards their uniqueness in the Bordeaux wine-growing landscape at the start of the 21st century.
At the confluence of the Dordogne and the Isle river, the prestigious terroirs of Fronsac form, with those of Pomerol and Saint Émilion , the historic wine-growing areas of the Right Bank of Bordeaux and surround the Anglo-medieval bastide of Libourne with a crown of vines.
Spread over 6 communes - Fronsac, Saint-Michel-de-Fronsac, Saillans, Saint-Aignan, La Rivière and Saint-Germain-La-Rivière with an exclusively clay-limestone subsoil : a terroir which found its wine-growing vocation more than 2000 years ago...
A story
multi-millennial
The first traces of human occupation in the Fronsadais date back to the Magdalenian (-16,000 years) with the discovery in 1934 of a female burial decorated with a rich deer spit adornment. An archaeological discovery which testifies to the very ancient occupation of Man on our territory and more generally along the Dordogne valley.
Its hilly reliefs are dominated by the Fronsac mound, a geological specificity forming a 74-metre high mound dominating the confluence of the Isle and the Dordogne. A strategic location where traces of human occupation can be found from the Neolithic period. The Romans established a castrum there as well as the first vines on the adjoining hillsides and Charlemagne had a castle built there in 769.
The 13th and 14th centuries saw the first golden age of the Bordeaux vineyards with the rise of the wine trade with England. In 1663, the Cardinal Duke of Richelieu decided to acquire the Duchy of Fronsac. His great-nephew, Marshal Louis-François Armand Vignerot du Plessis, nicknamed "Fronsac", inherited the Duchy in 1715, had a folly built there, the scene of great gallant parties, and contributed to the fame of Fronsac wines in the 18th century.
Fronsac - The historic cradle of the great wines of the Right Bank
The 18th century , the golden age par excellence of Bordeaux and its region, saw the beginning of a "wine revolution" in the Libourne region with the advent of the quality of the Great Wines of the Right Bank. These were three pioneering vineyards from hillsides located in the commune of Saint-Michel-de-Fronsac and Fronsac that would stand out for their high quality.
The reputation is such that the wines from its hillsides sell for 6 times more than ordinary red wine in the middle of the 18th century. These three "crus" made the first reputation of "Vins de Côtes" in the Bordeaux region, an appellation that would be taken over a century later by Saint Émilion, a guarantee of prestigious terroirs.
This qualitative revolution , which began in the 18th century, continued throughout the 19th century in the vineyards of Fronsac, Saint Émilion and Pomerol. This was not due to chance, but rather to the fact that the geological composition of the subsoils of these "vineyard cantons" had remarkable wine-growing potential. A privileged terroir that made it possible to produce high-quality wines.
