he 30 hectares of CHATEAU FOURCAS-BORIE vineyards are ideally located. The hilltops of Moulin du Bourg and Fourcas stretch themselves on fifteen hectares on the north edge of the château, and have not very deep gravelly soil on a clayey subsoil. Three grape-varieties can be found there : Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Merlot. The other half of the vineyard lays on a clayey-limestone soil and has mostly Merlot.

The vineyard's average age is about 30. The regional grape-varieties is composed of 50% of Merlot, 40% of Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% of Petit Verdot. Merlot gives fullness, fruitiness and flexibility to the wines, Cabernet Sauvignon gives them body, brilliance as well as a good ageing potential, and finally, Petit Verdot reinforces the wine's colour, structure and the richness of its tannins. Because quality is a main concern, the vineyard's management tends to limit each vine-trunk's vigor in order to obtain very good grapes, rich in flavours and intense aromas. Twenty seven plots have been selected regarding homogeneous criteria (grape-variety, age of the vineyard, rootstocks, type of soil). Early and not very productive rootstocks (Riparia and 101-14) can be found on the whole vineyard and allow a better control of the yields which roughly neighbor 54hl/ha, for a plantation density of 6, 600 and 9,900 vine-plants/ha. The vine labors are performed with the greatest respect of traditional methods.

During the winter, the vinegrowers carefully select the buds and make sure that there is enough space between them in order to allow an optimal ventilation for the grapes to come.

During the summer, the leaves are being thinned out to intensify ventilation a bit more and to help keeping good sanitary state of grapes. When there's a high yield year, green harvests allow reducing yields and homogenizing crop. CHATEAU FOURCAS-BORIE has been following the Cousinié Method for over three years. This method is based on a simple axiom : a healthy vine on a sound soil will become resistant to both diseases and parasites. Consequently, a good nutritional balance will allow limiting chemical treatments. That's the reason why soil and leaves analyses are regularly carried on, in order to know each plot, and to give them very precisely the qualitative and quantitative trace elements they need. Furthermore, CHATEAU FOURCAS-BORIE observe a rational fight by letting predators do their work rather than using acaricides.