Listrac-Médoc

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The vineyard rests on a plateau reaching 43 metres at its highest point, the loftiest point in the Médoc, framed by the Fonréaud ridge to the south and the Fourcas ridge to the north.
• The climate benefits from a relative smoothing of seasonal fluctuations and moderate rainfall averaging between 800 and 850 mm per year.
• The viticultural part of the commune remains under the temperature-moderating influence of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde water masses despite its central position on the Médoc peninsula.
• The geological formations combine sheets of Quaternary glacial gravel alluvium transported by the Garonne and the Dordogne, resting on a deformed Tertiary clay-limestone bedrock that was uplifted by anticlinal pressure and then stripped by erosion, locally exposing the limestone known as 'Listrac limestone', the oldest in the Médoc.
• A relief-inversion phenomenon during the Quaternary created the depression of the Peyrelevade plain, where outcropping clay-limestone soils characteristic of the appellation emerge along the slope.
• The vineyard is established on gravelly ridges formed from Quaternary sedimentary deposits originating in the erosion of the Pyrenees and the Massif Central, over a parent rock of sands and silts from the Landes de Gascogne. (via Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0)

• As early as the sixteenth century, Bordeaux and local nobility established 'maines' and then 'bourdieux', the forerunners of the châteaux-style wine estate typical of the Médoc peninsula.
• In the eighteenth century, during the 'fureur de planter' (planting frenzy), all new plantings were made exclusively with 'small-berried varieties': Carmenère, Cabernet franc, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Petit verdot, Cot, and Merlot.
• The recognition of several crus bourgeois in 1932 and the founding of the cooperative cellar in 1935 are among the factors that explain the vineyard's resilience during the interwar period, a time of general decline in viticulture.

• Listrac-Médoc wines are most often blends in which Merlot is the dominant variety, associated principally with Cabernet-Sauvignon.
• Petit verdot and Cabernet franc sometimes contribute to the blend, and more rarely Cot and Carmenère.
• These age-worthy wines combine tannic power and roundness on the palate, both conferred by the predominance of Merlot, a distinctive trait among the vineyards of the Médoc peninsula.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in France

Sources

• Product specification (BO Agri, PDF) — approved 31 juillet 2025, JORF 7 août 2025
• Official INAO text (show_texte)
• INAO product entry
• Official trade body site — CIVB