Château Fourcas Hosten

The estate

Fourcas Hosten dates its history to 1810, and the old books follow it closely. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, lists the Listrac cru Hosten that year under the Hosten family, at 50 to 60 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels); by 1845 it belonged to Bernard de Saint-Affrique. In 1874 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first printed the name Fourcas Hosten, at the head of the crus bourgeois supérieurs of Listrac, under the baronne de Saint-Affrique, at 65 tonneaux, and the same year Féret, in his Statistique of the Gironde, praised the vast and excellent plateau of Fourcas. The Saint-Affrique heirs still held it in 1922, at 100 tonneaux. The house is a chartreuse in the style of the 18th century near the church of Listrac, in a park of 3 hectares with trees more than 100 years old; Renaud Momméja is the gérant.

The 50 hectares lie on 2 grounds: clay and limestone on the Listrac plain, where the Merlot grows, and the Pyrenean gravel of the Fourcas plateau, for the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. From 2010 the whole vineyard was replanted over about 10 years, and from 2012 a white plot of 2 hectares was planted with Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris, then Sémillon. The vines have been certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 from the 2017 vintage and organic by Ecocert, the whites from 2020 and the reds from 2021, so that the 2021 is the first organic red.

The cellar, designed in 2010, has more than 40 small tanks of wood, concrete and stainless steel, from 2,500 to 10,000 liters, and the wine spends 12 months in French oak, 1 third of the barrels renewed each year. The 2023 grand vin (the estate’s first wine) is 51% Merlot, 44% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, 15% of it raised in amphora. Les Cèdres d’Hosten is the second wine; the white, 65% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Sauvignon Gris and 15% Sémillon in 2022, is aged on its fine lees.

At a glance

Appellation

Listrac-Médoc

Commune

Listrac-Médoc

Classification

No classification

Direction

Renaud Momméja, gérant

Vineyard

50 hectares, replanted from 2010; 2 hectares of white from 2012

Ground

Clay and limestone on the plain; Pyrenean gravel on the Fourcas plateau

Grapes

The 2023: Merlot 51%, Cabernet Sauvignon 44%, Petit Verdot 5%

Farming

Organic, Ecocert: whites from 2020, reds from 2021; Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, from 2017

Cellar

More than 40 small tanks; 12 months in French oak, 1 third new; some amphora

Wines

Château Fourcas Hosten, red and white; Les Cèdres d’Hosten

The house

An 18th-century-style chartreuse near the church of Listrac, in a park of 3 hectares

In history

Hosten under the Hosten family in 1824; the name Fourcas Hosten from 1874; 100 tonneaux in 1922

Sources: Château Fourcas Hosten · Château Fourcas Hosten, the estate awakens · Château Fourcas Hosten, changes to the vineyard · Château Fourcas Hosten, the quality dynamic · Château Fourcas Hosten, the transition to organic · Château Fourcas Hosten, the grand vin · Château Fourcas Hosten, the white · Château Fourcas Hosten, legal notice