Château Fourcas Dupré has been a favourite Médoc cru bourgeois for many years. Bought by Guy Pagès in the 1960s, it sits at the highest point of the Listrac appellation where the mixture of free-draining gravel soils together with heavier clay is the perfect environment for cabernet sauvignon and merlot respectively.
Since the 1990s, Patrice Pagès, together with his brother Ghislain, have dramatically improved quality due to better trellising, more precise vineyard work, lower yields and a stricter selection for the grand vin. Today only 50% of the crop is sold as Château Fourcas Dupré with the remainder going into the second wine, Les Hautes Terres de Fourcas Dupré, and the wine is now aged in 40% new oak barrels, a far cry from the practices inherited by their father forty years ago.
Belleyme's famous map, produced during the reign of Louis the 15th, shows that vines were grown at the time at a place named "Fourcas", on a gravelly rise 42 metres high with good sun exposure. Formerly called
"Cru Roullet," the vineyard was acquired in 1843 by Jean-Baptiste Dupré, a solicitor at the Bordeaux Court of Appeal. A year later, the cellars and winery buildings were renovated and Fourcas Dupré was born. Today, the château belongs to a family-owned company headed by Mr Patrice Pagès, and produces some 20,000 cases of 12 bottles a year. Above and beyond the original buildings, the château now features an efficient new vat room and perfectly equipped cellars.
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