Les Verdots, The promised land

One might as well say it at the outset, David Fourtout’s vineyards are making their mark on the Bergerac region. Culture, environment and heritage all become focussed single mindedly on the vine.
Phylloxera having ravaged much of the Bordeaux vineyards, the Fourtout family of winemakers moved away in 1870 to settle in the Perigord where they constructed the present domaine. For four generations, through the passing years and successive seasons, the men of the Verdots estate have created a great terroir. The wines here are a product of long patience and passionate commitment.
David Fourtout embraces at the same time both tradition and inventiveness while he has been leading the estate towards a more successful strategy. Thus, he has been in the family winery since 1992 when he started working with his parents, taking the reins in 2001. And one must mention Jean Guy Fourtout, the winemaker’s father, who several years ago, started work on an enormous construction that he built in a masterly manner, digging the cellar down to the underground Verdots river, and then erecting on top of it a monumental building flanked by two towers. The vineyards spread all around the beautifully built winery The result is unique.

Alchemy or magic?
The thirty-five acres of vineyards are worked according to the principles of “lutte raisonnée”, using specific treatments adapted to the needs of the situation. This reduces chemical intervention to a minimum and relegates tradition chemical treatments to the past. As a visionary leaning towards viticultural techniques which respect the environment, the methods used by David Fourtout seek to maintain biodiversity and the ecosystem.
At harvest time, the fruit is selected plot by plot, depending on the soil, yield, grape variety, age of the vines, the sugar content and the weather. The crop is then transported to the winery whose design combines respect of the raw material with a modern infrastructure. A first alchemy takes place during fermentation in vats, and that is followed, in the case of some of the wines, by another transformation in barrels. For this, David Fourtout carries out a very special task:- assembly. Erudite and mysterious, the combination of grapes from different varieties is a skilful search for balance, complexity, harmony ... It gives the wine its color, flavour and music. Thus it is that Les Verdots wine grows little by little, forging its true identity in the perpetual twilight of the underground 600m2 dug from the living rock. After consulting the lunar calendar bottling, in the newly installed bottling room, will close these steps, after which the wine called “Les Verdots” can be tasted. Food lovers will enjoy it younger, while on the other hand, the connoisseur will prefer to lay it down. But let us not forget that we are all in turn food lovers and gourmets... Different wines express the essence of the marriage of grape and terroir:- Clos des Verdots, Chateau Les Tour des Verdots, Les Verdots Grands Vins and Le Vin selon David Fourtout.
Their quality comes from the different grape varieties that make up the harvest. Their choice is undoubtedly the fruit of long experience in which chance has given way to informed decision. From the planting of the young vine to the bottling of the finished wine, everythng is carried out on the estate. It is praiseworthy to note that today, the estate’s wines are found all round the globe.

Wine Tourism
The villages round the Cantonal capital, Issigeac, of which Conne-de-Labarde is one, have many magnificent medieval houses. To be more precise, we are talking about the triangle formed by Beaumont-en-Perigord, Villereal and Monbazillac. One way to discover the historical and cultural heritage and to approach the local lifestyle is to enter a winemaker’s cellar and taste the wines in their company. You’ll soon fall under their spell. If you prefer to go right to the heart of the matter a visit to the Verdots estate honours both those who visit and those who receive And to prolong this pleasurable moment why not take advantage of the two B&B rooms, named to celebrate local grape varieties, "Merlot" or "Muscadelle" ... David Fourtout has gathered around him women and men whose attention to the slightest detail celebrates the estate wines. Les Verdots feels like heaven on earth.

A meeting with David Fourtout, elected best winemaker of the year at the Bergerac show/exhibition. The man, in making sure that his vines are in the closest possible harmony with the terroir, is innovative and a ground breaker.
If one were to introduce oneself claiming the name of Fourtout, living in a village called “Conne de Labarde and producing a wine under the “Verdots” name, there’s a good chance that one would be treated with some suspicion. And yet... and yet this is well and truly the case and the 35 year old David Fourtout does so with a certain malicious pleasure. If it is amusing to order a “Verdots” wine in a restaurant and see a bottle arrive, the wine itself is no joke at all. On the contrary, David Fourtout is a perfectionist. His wines have been admired, as he was elected winemaker of the year, and his wines obtained many medals at the last Bergerac exhibition/fair (gold medal for dry white Bergerac 2003, red Bergerac 2003 and for Monbazillac 2002),
He is equally one of the special choices of the Hachette guide 2005. A surprising career for someone who was originally destined to be a livestock farmer. “It’s the meeting I had with the technical director of Ch Mouton Rothschild that inspired me to take up winemaking. We’re on a plateau that’s well aligned to the sun here, and with poor soils spread over three communes, those of Conne-de-Labarde, Colombier et Saint-Nexans.” The somewhat surprising name of “Verdots” comes from the stream that runs under the vines and one can see in the cellars, and thus it was taken by the winemaker’s father for his products.
Invest and innovate.
David Fourtout is a stickler for detail, and for the care which makes the difference, regularly re-invests so that the wine can be as good as possible.
From 1994 to 2003, helped by his father, he built an imposing building of 700 square metres, to welcome visitors on the ground floor, and under which were created the cellars . He took over control of the business in 2002.
He was one of the first to carry out a detailed terroir analysis of his land since 1998. This has led to the removal of vines from one hillside and planting on another, in order to be as much in harmony with his land as possible.
David Fourtout says he’s in favour of the new planting densities. “You must plant at 6,500 vines per hectare, it’s the only way to sell. It has to be good. Nowadays there’s so much wine on sale that there’s no room for mediocrity.” says the person who is administrator for the Union of Bergerac wines. “I think of myself as somewhat like a chef. If the basic ingredients are no good , and the cooking methods are not well chosen, you can’t make good quality products.”
The man is modern, innovative and has managed his business so well that in 12 years it has grown from having one employee to 6. “There are always three or four people among the vines. You have to take great care over them because even if oenology has created many products, it still has its limits. Faced with so many different activities, how should one define the profession “winemaker”? “It has become a complex job, he has to be an agronomist in that he must master the idea of terroir and know what grows there naturally. He must be a cellarmaster, a salesman, a manager and an organiser. In short... he’s like an orchestral conductor”