Red grape
Mancin
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ahn” and “an” are nasal vowels: say them through the nose, with no n. The recording is the reference.
Mancin is a black grape of the old Médoc, Bourg, and palus, named in a 1781 Pauillac report; whether it is VIVC’s Mancin or Manseng Noir is open.
The earliest record in my library is a report. Auguste Petit-Lafitte, in his 1868 book La vigne dans le Bordelais, cited a catalog sent in 1781 by the subdelegation of Pauillac to the intendant of Guyenne, which wrote the name “Manssen”. It was Terny at Margaux and Macau and Coulant elsewhere in the Médoc, and “formerly it was the dominant vine of the great growths of the Médoc” («autrefois c'était le cépage dominant des grands crûs du Médoc»), though it ripened before the others and rotted in strong gravel. The abbé Bellet, canon of Cadillac, had already blamed it for an earthy taste. André Jullien’s Topographie (1816) found the vineyards of Bourg “principally peopled by the mancin” («principalement peuplés par le mancin»).
The books describe two characters under one name. Secondat, as Petit-Lafitte reported, praised the Tarney at Château d’Issan, where the wine had “so fine a color that it is called the Rubis fondu d’Issan” («une si belle couleur , qu'on l'appelle le Rubis fondu d'Issan»), and Armand d’Armailhacq, a Médoc proprietor, in his 1855 book on the vines and wines of the Médoc, described the maussein as early, very sweet, and rotting before vintage. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, described the mancin in 1898 as late, never rotting, with abundant, dark wine, spread above all in the palus near Bordeaux.
Its identity today is open. VIVC keeps a prime Mancin (7298), with Tarnay Coulant, Mansenc, Maussein, Coulon Timbré, and Petit Fou among its names and no known parents. VIVC also lists Mancin, Maussein, Tarney Coulant, Coulon Timbré, and Petit Fou under Manseng Noir (7340), and Viala and Vermorel’s Ampélographie gave the same Gironde names under “Manseng rouge” in 1904. Both readings stand until markers settle them.
Oldest record in my library: Catalog of the subdelegation of Pauillac, 1781 (as “Manssen”), reported by Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868 (other passages of the book date the same catalog to 1784)
The family
Parents unknown.
Mancin
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Mansin, Manssen, Mansenc, Mancen, petit et gros mancen, maussein, Soumansingue, Soumansigne, Coulon-Timbré, Gros-Coulon, Petit Coulon, Petit-Fou, Tarney, Tarney-Coulant.
Other names in VIVC: Cauny, Cot A Queue Verte, Cot Vert, Coulant, Coulon Timbre, Mansain, Mansenc, Mansin, Maussein, Mourtaou, Mourtau, Moutau, Petit Fou, Pousse Debout.
Old names: Mancin-colon (open), Mourtaou (likely), Prunelas (open), Tarney (likely)
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“There is much Tarney at château d’Issan: this growth is excellent too, and the wine there has so fine a color that it is called the Rubis fondu d’Issan.”
Il y a beaucoup de Tarney au château d'Issan : ce crû est excellent aussi , et le vin y a une si belle couleur , qu'on l'appelle le Rubis fondu d'Issan
“in excellent palus soils, is planted 1/2 malbec, 1/4 verdol, 1/4 mancin.”
dans d’excellentes terres de palus, est complanté 1/2 malbec, 1/4 verdol, 1/4 mancin
“It is planted with 9/10 verdot and 1/10 mancin and merlot.”
Il est complanté en 9/10 verdot et 1/10 mancin et merlot .
“merlot, malbec, cabernet, and mancin grafted on herbemont, riparia, and solonis.”
merlot, malbec, cabernet et mancin greffés sur herbemont, riparia et solonis
Sources
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, Deuxième division, B. Le Mancin and C. Le Tarney-Coulant, pp. 179 to 180 and 482 to 484 as printed, citing the 1781 catalog of the subdelegation of Pauillac, the abbé Bellet and Secondat
- André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, Gironde
- Armand d'Armailhacq, La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc, 1855, ch. 2
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, pp. 21 to 22
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874, p. 20
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 5th ed., 1886
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 7th ed., 1898, ampélographie, Mancin
- Pierre Viala and Victor Vermorel (eds.), Traité général de viticulture: Ampélographie, 1904, Manseng rouge
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 7298 (MANCIN) and passport id 7340 (MANSENG NOIR), accessed October 2026
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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