Fronsac

Vines arrived under Roman rule. The rules state that Charlemagne built a powerful fortress, Franciacus, the "camp of the Franks", on older Gallo-Roman works on the Tertre de Fronsac, and link the area's name to it. In the eighteenth century Louis-François Armand du Plessis, great-grand-nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, inherited the duchy of Fronsac, promoted its wines at the court of Versailles and built a folly on the tertre. In the second half of that century Libourne notables settled on the slopes above the Dordogne and improved winegrowing; the historian Henri Enjalbert called these slopes "the historic cradle of the great wines of the Libournais". The port and merchants of Libourne carried the wines through the nineteenth century. Recognised on 4 March 1937 as Côtes de Fronsac, the appellation was renamed Fronsac by decree on 21 September 1976 at the growers' request.

Fronsac lies on the right bank of the Dordogne where the Isle joins it, separated from Libourne by the Isle valley. Its relief is broken by rocky knolls called tertres; the highest, the Tertre de Fronsac at 76 m, looks across to Pomerol and Saint-Émilion. Only hillside vines are included; the alluvial floors of the Isle and Dordogne valleys are excluded. Most vines grow on the Fronsadais molasse of the slopes, coarse sands, sometimes sandstone, or sandy clay with brown calcareous soils, and on the asteriated limestone of the plateau, with clay-limestone or clay-sand soils. Castillon limestone forms a wooded white cornice along the Dordogne. The climate is temperate oceanic; fairly steep slopes and the two rivers lower the risk of spring night frost and cold-air pools and temper summer heat.

The specification describes intense red wines, purple or ruby, with a powerful nose of red fruit, often truffle and sometimes gamey or mineral notes depending on the soil, and a texture that combines robustness and elegance, with excellent ageing potential. Merlot ripens fully on the clay-limestone slopes, and Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon add freshness and structure. Malbec, the fourth grape by area, does well on limestone, clay-gravel and clay-limestone soils and gives more tannic breadth, with small black fruit and liquorice.

Fronsac is red only, from Fronsac, La Rivière, Saillans, Saint-Aignan, Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière, Saint-Michel-de-Fronsac and parcels of Galgon. The principal grapes, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, must make up at least 80 % of the planting; Carménère and Petit Verdot are limited to 10 % each. The base yield is 53 hl/ha, and wines are aged until at least 1 June of the year after the harvest. Grassed field margins are compulsory to limit erosion on the slopes. The Bordeaux wine council puts Merlot at about 80 % and Cabernet Franc at about 15 % of the vineyard; the specification gave 818 ha in 2009, with holdings averaging about 6 ha. Canon-Fronsac is a separate neighbouring appellation.