Red grape
Gros Verdot
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Gros Verdot is a black grape of the old Gironde palus, the bigger-berried companion of Petit Verdot in the 19th-century books; VIVC lists it as Verdot Gros, with no known parents.
Gros Verdot belonged to the palus, the rich alluvial flats along the river near Bordeaux. André Jullien, in his survey of the world’s vineyards, the Topographie de tous les vignobles connus (1816), names it for the palus growths of Montferrand and Queyries: “It is with the gros and the petit verdot, the malbek, the mancin, and the two vidures that the wines are made” («C’est avec le gros et le petit verdot, le malbek y le mancin et les deux vïdures que se font les vins»). Victor Rendu’s Ampélographie française (1857) named the Gros and the Petit Verdot above all others among the vines of the palus.
William Franck, the Bordeaux wine merchant whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, listed the gros Verdot among the best red grapes of the department: “Same qualities, but its fruit is bigger” («Mêmes qualités, mais son fruit est plus gros.»). Both Verdots, he wrote, ripened with difficulty and gave a firm, deep-colored wine for long keeping. His 1845 edition is precise: when the gros Verdot ripens perfectly, which was rare and happened in years such as 1815, 1819, 1822, and 1825, “it gives a very delicate wine, full of bouquet and of a fine color” («il fournit un vin très-délicat, plein de bouquet et d'une belle couleur»).
The name holds a question. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, counted four verdots in 1868: the petit, the medium, the gros, and the verdot-colon. The last they called “very productive, but very inferior in quality” («très productif , mais très inférieur comme qualité»), and by 1898 the most frost-prone of all vines. VIVC today puts Gros Verdot and Verdot Colon on one passport, Verdot Gros (12972), with Plant de Palus among its names. No source says whether Franck’s fine gros Verdot and the guide’s verdot-colon were one vine, so that identity stays open.
Oldest record in my library: “grand verdot”, 1736, in abbé Bellet’s catalog of the vines of Bordeaux and Cadillac, as printed in Viala and Vermorel, Ampélographie, vol. 1, 1910; “Gros Verdot”, 1783, from a Libourne correspondent of Dupré de Saint-Maur, as quoted in Viala and Vermorel, Ampélographie, vol. 6, 1905; “le gros et le petit verdot”, 1816, in André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus
The family
Parents unknown.
Gros Verdot
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Verdot-Colon, graput.
Other names in VIVC: Colon, Fer, Gros Verdau, Gros Verdot, Gros Verdot Colon, Gros Verdot Noir, Here, Herranet, Herre, Hert, Plant De Palus, Verdau Colon, Verdot Colon.
Old names: Fer (open), Grapput (open), Here ou tête noire (open), Mancin-colon (open), Panereuil (open), Verdot (open), Verdot-Colon (open), Verdot-de-Palus (open)
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“It is largely planted in gros verdot and cabernet gris.”
Il est en grande partie com- planté en gros verdot et en cabernet gris.
“The red vineyard is planted with choice vines, half in malbec and half in cabernet-sauvignon, merlot, gros verdot, and mancin.”
Le vignoble rouge est complanté de cépages de choix, moitié en malbec et moitié en cabernet-sauvignon, merlot, gros verdot et mancin.
“M. Grazilhon has just created in the palus of Saint-Estèphe a vineyard of 40 hectares, planted half in petit verdot and cabernet-sauvignon, half in gros verdot and Saint-Macaire.”
M. Grazilhon vient de créer dans les palus de St - Estèphe un vignoble de 40 hect . complanté moitié en petit - verdot , cabernet- sauvignon , moitié en gros verdot et St - Macaire .
Sources
- André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, Gironde
- Victor Rendu, Ampélographie française, 1857, Vins de Bordeaux, palus
- William Franck, Traité sur les vins du Médoc, 1st ed., 1824, ch. 2, meilleurs cépages
- William Franck, Traité sur les vins du Médoc, 2nd ed., 1845, ch. 2
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, Cépages de vignes rouges, pp. 19 to 20
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 6th ed., 1893
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 7th ed., 1898, ampélographie, Verdot-Colon
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 12972 (VERDOT GROS), accessed October 2026
- Pierre Viala & Victor Vermorel, Ampélographie, t. I, Paris, Masson, 1910, 'Histoire de l'ampélographie' (Tallavignes), p. 537 note, printing abbé Bellet's 1736 catalog of the vines of Bordeaux and Cadillac (dated 1736 by Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868)
- Pierre Viala & Victor Vermorel, Ampélographie, t. VI, Paris, Masson, 1905, Verdots (G. Cazeaux-Cazalet)
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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