ur family, originally from Saint Emilion, has been dedicated to farming vines for the past four generations. In his book published in 1903, Edouard Féret made reference to this estate, known then as Verdeau, which already appeared on the oldest maps of the Périgord region.

• After Augustine, his great grandfather, and Gaston-Louis, his grandfather, both true winemakers at heart, it is now David’s turn, in association with his father, Jean-Guy (creator of the “Clos des Verdots”), to carry on the work begun over a century ago. For barrel and bottle-ageing, a new cellar has been dug out of the rock through which flows an underground river giving a unique identity to the Verdots estate.

• Born of an exceptional terroir and given great care and attention, these fine wines are the result of a dream come true. The quality of the grapes is determined by such procedures as green harvesting, leaf-thinning, and hand-harvesting perfectly ripe grapes for the fine red and dry white wines or selecting nobly rotted grapes for the fine sweet whites, and the juices are then barrel fermented and aged in quality French oak.

 

• D. Fourtout is actively reorganising the vineyard, uprooting some parcels and replanting the more interesting ones, because the quality of a wine is first of all determined in the vineyard. Indeed, since he took over in 1992, he has planted an extra 15 acres of vines, bringing the total surface under vine to 75 acres on this 264-acre estate.

• The soils were mapped out in 1998 according to the organic Hérody method, and this has allowed for better matching of grape varieties with particular soil-types. Next Spring, for example, we will be planting 3.5 acres of Sauvignon blanc on a soil similar to that of other great white wines.

• In our continued pursuit of quality, we are increasing plant density to 3,000 vines per acre, more than double that of most Bergerac vineyards. This way, each vine will bear less fruit which will be better nourished and produce richer, more concentrated wines. Furthermore, D. Fourtout’s concern for the protection of the environment shows in the fact that he has installed a waste and sewage treatment system for the winery and in his reduced use of pesticides in the vineyard.