Loupiac

loo-PYAHK

How to read this

Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The recording is the reference.

Sweet white from one commune on the right bank of the Garonne, looking across the water at Barsac, where the grapes are picked by hand in successive passes and the wine keeps at least 45 g/l of sugar.

The place

Loupiac is one commune on the right bank of the Garonne, facing Barsac and Sauternes across the river. Twenty-four neighboring communes, Sauternes and Barsac among them, make up the area of immediate proximity, where the wine may be made but not grown. The hills begin here: clay slopes under the vines, capped by a ledge of sandy limestone, cut in marls, sands and clays younger than the starfish limestone, which sinks out of sight near Cadillac; the slopes that face south carry brown soils, more or less limestone and more or less stony, and those that face north and east carry wind-blown silts. The relief is steep: 45% of the appellation slopes more than 10%, and the land runs from about 20 to 100 meters. About 300 hectares and around 50 producers make an average of 10,000 hectoliters.

The rules

Sweet white only, from Sémillon, Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle. At least 5,000 vines a hectare, rows no more than 2 meters apart and vines no closer than 1 meter in the row, at 40 hectoliters a hectare with a ceiling of 44. The grapes are picked by hand in successive passes through the rows and must carry 238 g/l of sugar for Sémillon and 229 for the other varieties. The wine must reach 14.5% of natural alcohol, be sold at 12% at least and keep at least 45 g/l of unfermented sugar. It is raised until January 15 and sold from January 31 of the year after the harvest. The cahier des charges, the appellation’s official rulebook, was last modified on December 29, 2025.

The names

No classification governs Loupiac today, but the wine was ranked long ago: André Jullien, the Paris wine merchant whose Topographie de tous les vignobles connus surveyed the vineyards of the world, placed the first growths of Loupiac level with the second growths of Sauternes in 1832. Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, the commune next door, was recognized by the same decree of September 11, 1936 and keeps almost the same rules, yields, sugars and dates, differing only in how close the vines may stand. Cadillac, upriver, is the strict one of the 3: recognized in 1973 over 22 communes, it asks for 15% of natural alcohol, 255 g/l of sugar in the must, 51 g/l left in the wine and a yield of 37 hectoliters a hectare.

Color: Sweet white
Communes: Loupiac, and no other; 24 more make up the area of immediate proximity
Vineyard: About 300 hectares, around 50 producers, an average of 10,000 hectoliters
Soil: Clay slopes under a ledge of sandy limestone; brown, more or less stony limestone soils facing south; wind-blown silts facing north and east
Grapes: Sémillon, Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Muscadelle
Density: 5,000 vines a hectare at least
Yield: 40 hectoliters a hectare, ceiling 44
Harvest: By hand, in successive passes; 238 g/l of sugar for Sémillon, 229 for the others
Alcohol: 14.5% natural at least, sold at 12% at least; 45 g/l of sugar left
Release: From January 31 of the year after the harvest
Classified: No classification
Next door: Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, recognized the same day and on almost the same rules; Cadillac, of 1973, asks for 15% of alcohol, 255 g/l in the must and 51 g/l left, at 37 hectoliters a hectare
AOC since: September 11, 1936; cahier modified on December 29, 2025

Sources: FGVB, cahier des charges Loupiac, arrêté du 29 décembre 2025 · FGVB, cahier des charges Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, arrêté du 29 décembre 2025 · FGVB, cahier des charges Cadillac, arrêté du 29 décembre 2025 · Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux, Loupiac

The stack

The same land in Loupiac may also be labeled Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Crémant de Bordeaux, Côtes de Bordeaux, Premières Côtes de Bordeaux and Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux. A grower chooses which appellation to sell under, and the narrowest is almost always the dearest.

The appellations of Bordeaux are stacked, not laid side by side. The map draws the whole stack. Open the map

The pyramid of names shows what each step promises: vines a hectare, bottles, ripeness, day of sale, grapes. Climb from here

Terroir

Loupiac is where a new kind of hill begins. Upriver from Bordeaux, the cliff of starfish limestone (calcaire à astéries) along the right bank slips away near Rions and Cadillac, sinking under the terraces, and does not reach the surface again until Verdelais. From Loupiac on, the hills are built of younger rock: clay slopes covered with vines, topped by a ledge of sandy limestone.

Those younger layers are the marls and sands of the Agenais, left by rivers and lakes, and sandy limestones of the early Miocene. In a paper of 1904, J. Labrie noted that the lake limestone at Loupiac holds fossils, above all a ramshorn snail of the lake, Planorbis cornu.

Across the delimited area, slope wash and cover take 44.8% and the oldest river deposits 34.0%: reddish clayey sand and gravel, probably the oldest trace attributed to an ancestral Garonne. A younger Garonne terrace of sand, gravel and pebbles turns up here on the right bank, and at Barsac on the left. One river, one terrace, both banks: Loupiac and Barsac.

619 ha delimited

Slope wash and cover44.8%
River and estuary deposits of today1.7%
Ice age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebbles2.0%
Landes sand and the oldest river deposits34.0%
Shell sands (faluns), limestones and marls of the Miocene1.0%
Agenais molasses: clays and sands above the limestone13.8%
Starfish limestone and marine marls1.9%
Lake limestones and clays0.8%

Shares of the delimited area, measured on BRGM’s geological map, in families by the age and rock its legend prints, youngest first.

Half its delimited soil lies above 70 m, and 9 tenths lies between 20 and 102 m.

Measured section

The line runs 3.2 km, from 1 m to 50 m. Inside the delimited area it lies between 19 and 95 m.

Colors: Slope wash and coverRiver and estuary deposits of todayIce age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebblesLandes sand and the oldest river depositsAgenais molasses: clays and sands above the limestone

Measured section: one elevation every 10 meters, west to east, along the whole of a 3.2 km line set across the appellation by a fixed rule, not chosen for the view (IGN, RGE ALTI 5 m), with the geology at the surface (BRGM, BD Charm-50). Heights stretched 20 times. The layers below the surface are not drawn.

Tap the marker on the section, or open the borehole below: a core slides out, layer by layer.

1Drill here: Cadillac, borehole 852-1-1, 894 m from the line

Depth	As printed	In English	Age (ICS)
0.0 to 5.4 m	Quaternaire	Quaternary	the last 2.58 million years
5.4 to 71.0 m	Oligocène	Oligocene	33.9 to 23.04 million years ago
71.0 to 202.0 m	Éocène	Eocene	56.0 to 33.9 million years ago

Log printed in BRGM notice 0852, p. 24, under the heading “Cadillac, Communal 1” (borehole BSS002AEFK in the subsurface register). The log names ages, not rocks. Marked at the point of the line nearest to it.Depths in meters below the surface; thin layers are drawn at a minimum height.BRGM, Notice explicative de la feuille Langon à 1/50 000, 1978.

The units, as BRGM prints them

Code	Name and age, as printed	Share
Slope wash and cover		44.8%
CFp	Formations superficielles	41.6%
CFp'	Formations superficielles	3.3%
River and estuary deposits of today		1.7%
Fy3-z	Alluvions subactuelles à actuelles indiféernéciées (sic), Pré-boréal à actuel	1.7%
Ice age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebbles		2.0%
Fxb(a)	Basse terrasses - Terrasse de Bègle (type 6) indifférenciée, Saalien - "Riss"	2.0%
Landes sand and the oldest river deposits		34.0%
Ft(Sa)	Fmt de Sadirac, Tiglien - "Biber-Donau"	34.0%
Shell sands (faluns), limestones and marls of the Miocene		1.0%
	and 2 more units under 1% each, 1.0% in all
Agenais molasses: clays and sands above the limestone		13.8%
g1-A	Molasse de l'Agenais inf. à facies argileux dominant, Rupélien continental	13.8%
Starfish limestone and marine marls		1.9%
g1-As	Calcaire à Astéries, Rupélien marin	1.9%
Lake limestones and clays		0.8%
	and 1 more unit under 1% each, 0.8% in all

Informative figures, computed from INAO’s digitized parcel delimitation of October 12, 2026 and BRGM’s harmonized geological map (BD Charm-50); heights from IGN’s RGE ALTI 5 m. The plans held at the town hall are the legal reference. The delimited area is always somewhat larger than what is planted.

Sources: BRGM, Notice explicative de la feuille Langon à 1/50 000, 1978; J. Labrie, Les dépôts aquitaniens et les limites de la mer aquitanienne en Entre-deux-Mers, 1904; INAO parcel delimitation (file of 2026-10-12) laid over BRGM BD Charm-50 Gironde, harmonized geological map.

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