Château Fourcas Dupré
Ranking: Unclassified
Appellation: Listrac-Médoc
Owner: Gérard Jicquel
Ten-second primer: One of the ‘big five’ in the appellation, alongside Fourcas Hosten, Fonréaud, Lestage and Clarke, Fourcas-Dupré has been reborn under Gérard Jicquel, who bought the property in 2019. Very good whites made alongside the reds. Wines made by Lucas Leclercq and Gilles Bergerot.
This profile includes: Three pages of history and detail (links above), and tasting notes back to 1996.
Driving north on the Médoc, the most romantic and scenic route is undoubtedly the D2, the famed Route des Châteaux, which takes you through the four big communal appellations, directly past – as the name suggests – historic châteaux such as Pichon Baron and Cos d’Estournel. There is an alternative route though. Take the road that lies a little more inland and not only will you reach your destination at an earlier time (not always a priority, I know) but you will see another side of Bordeaux, one that is just important to discerning drinkers. Most significantly you will discover the appellation of Listrac-Médoc and, if you take a short detour, Moulis-en-Médoc as well.
Our route passes straight through the middle of the town of Listrac-Médoc, and just a minute or two later we reach the hamlet of Le Fourcas. This was once a small collection of rather tired-looking agricultural buildings and tumbledown houses, somewhat symbolic of the declining fortunes of this rather downtrodden appellation, too easily overlooked in favour of those more famous names sitting a few kilometres to the east. These days, however, this is no longer true. Both Listrac-Médoc and Moulis-en-Médoc are appellations on the rise, with several estates seeing the arrival of new owners bringing a new level of investment. Keep your eyes peeled as you drive through Le Fourcas and you will see this is undeniable; the once rather drab Château Fourcas-Dupré now has a more palatial air, a gleaming edifice of crisp clean limestone and gilded signs. It is a property transformed. The man responsible is the new owner, one Gérard Jicquel, who acquired the estate in 2019.
This refreshed profile looks in detail at the Fourcas-Dupré of today, at its vineyards, new cellars and rejuvenated range of wines. First of all, though, is is customary, we need a little historical context.
Origins
Vines have no doubt been planted around the hamlet of Le Fourcas for several hundred years, having first appeared on the Belleyme map, drawn up late in the 18th century by Pierre de Belleyme (1747 – 1819). At this time the domaine which would grow to become the modern-day Fourcas-Dupré was known as Cru Roullet, and it came into the possession of Marie-Nicole Mal de Saint-Géran, the widow of Jean-Louis Hostein Dussort. She sold up in 1843, at which point it was acquired by Jean Antoine Baptiste Dupré (c.1801 – 1875), who was known to his friends as Adolphe. An avocat in the Cour d’Appel in Bordeaux, he paid 275,000 francs for the privilege.
