Château Fonroque

Château Fonroque is the birthplace of the Moueix family in Saint-Emilion.  This property was bought in 1931 by Jean and Adèle, the great grandparents of Alain Moueix, who is now director of this lovely wine estate.

The second son in a family of small-scale farmers from the highlands in the Corrèze region, Jean Moueix moved “up” to Paris in the 1920s, where with his wife Adèle he opened a first cheese and dairy produce shop; he subsequently ...

The Fonroque estate stretches its 20 hectares over several hundred metres to the north-west of the village of Saint-Emilion.  The vineyard covers 17.6 hectares in a single piece of land that spreads across a plateau and a west-facing hillside.   Neighbouring estates are principally classified growths: Château Laniote to the West, Château Cap de Mourlin to the North, Château Moulin du Cadet and Cadet Piolat to the East, Château Clos Fourtet on ...

At Château Fonroque, plots of Cabernet Franc grown on soils containing a majority of limestone bring elegance, length and structure to the wines; these elements also offset the natural roundness and generosity of Merlot. Wines made here are naturally rich; they possess intense balance and complexity, giving an elegant, velvety-smooth sensation on the palate.  Their length is a guarantee of finely-balanced ageing. 

The reasoning applied...

When Alain Moueix assumed the management of this 20-hectare estate (17.6 of which under vine) in 2000, he took the time to observe his terroir and vineyard carefully. Thanks to his training as an agricultural engineer-oenologist and endowed with wine-producing experience gained in France as well as abroad, he made the carefully considered decision to pass Château Fonroque over to "organic" methods as of 2002.  Verifications to obtain certifica...