Château Fonbadet

Pierre de Gères, Sieur de Saint Sève, Knight of Malta, descendant of a great noble family, acquired the Fonbadet vineyard at the beginning of the 19th century. Sub-prefect of the Gironde in 1815 and Member of Parliament in 1824, he devoted his undivided passion to his wine estate. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Fonbadet in the writings of Lecoutre de Beauvais in 1838, who places it at the top of the Bourgeois Supérieurs and rivalling the fourth class of the commune’s crus. Pierre de Gères died on his estate in 1847. Fonbadet was succeeded by many other estates over the years, but its classification as a superior Bourgeois cru was confirmed in 1932, when Robert Peyronie acquired it in 1950, although it only covered 6 hectares. Through successive judicious purchases, he and his son Pierre, who succeeded him, increased the estate to 14 hectares. Pascale joined her father Pierre in 1991 and together they continued to acquire vines to give the cru its current size. Pascale didn’t come to the estate by chance; she studied law and went on to obtain a postgraduate diploma (DESS) in vine and wine law. Her passion for wine led her to complete her training with a degree in oenology. From generation to generation, the Peyronie family has succeeded in restoring Fonbadet to the prominence it enjoyed in the early 19th century. The vineyard is made up of 3 distinct entities. Four hectares are located near the 18th-century Carthusian monastery at Saint Lambert, next to Latour and Pichon Comtesse. Three hectares in Pauillac are alongside the vines of Bages, and thirteen hectares at Pouyalet are surrounded by the vines of Mouton Rothschild. The terroir is there: deep gravelly hilltops where the vines take deep root, natural drainage, optimum sunshine, proximity to the river and its beneficial micro-climate.
Since her first winemaking session with her father in 1999, Pascale Peyronie has never ceased to express, vintage after vintage, the natural values of this exceptional terroir, i.e. a unique fruitiness full of delicacy, velvetiness and harmony. Château Fonbadet is regularly selected by the C.I.V.B., and has also been a prize-winner in the Cuvée du Cinquantenaire des A.O.C. and I.N.A.O. competitions. As for the future, the fifth generation is growing up alongside their elders, who are still driven by an undiminished passion, and no-one at Fonbadet doubts that they will one day take up the torch.