Red grape
Pardotte
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Pardotte, or Petite-Parde, is a black grape of the old Entre-deux-Mers, Cadillac, and Graves country; VIVC lists a Pardotte with no known parents, but which vine the books meant is open.
The earliest record of the name pardotte in my library is the 1874 edition of Bordeaux et ses vins by Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade. Its commune entries put pardotte in the red vineyards between Cadillac and La Réole: a quarter of the vines in one commune near Cadillac, a fifth in another by the Garonne near La Réole, and “petite et grosse pardotte” among the common vines of the canton that takes in Gironde and Casseuil. At Semens “grosse parde” and “pardotte” stood side by side. Pierre Viala’s Les maladies de la vigne (1893) put “Pignon ou Pardotte” among the vines very little attacked by mildew.
The guide read the name three ways. In 1874, “Parde et Pardoite”, as printed, in the Graves and the canton of Saint-Macaire, were names of the Pignon. In 1893 and 1898, “Petite-Parde ou Pardotte” named the Machouquet in the canton of Cadillac and the Graves, and also “a vine that takes after the Machouquet and the Cabernet without being quite like them” («un cépage qui tient du Machouquet et du Cabernet sans être absolument semblable à ces cépages»), which J. Daurel described and drew. VIVC’s Pardotte (8936) now gathers Petite Parde, Gros Machouquet, Pignon, Courbin, and Tripet on one passport, names the 1898 guide split between two vines. The identity stays open.
Oldest record in my library: as “le pignon”, 1855, in Armand d’Armailhacq, La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc; “Pignon (en Médoc); Parde (en graves)”, 1868, in Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins, 2nd edition; “Parde et Pardotte”, 1874, in their 3rd edition
The family
Parents unknown.
Pardotte
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Petite-Parde, grosse parde, Parde.
Other names in VIVC: Canut Noir, Chausse Noir, Coni, Cony, Courbin, Ferriolet, Gros Machouquet, Machouquet, Parde, Pardotte Noire, Petit Machouquet, Petite Parde, Pignon, Sauvignon Noir.
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“Ordinary red wines, made from 1/2 malbec (parde), 1/4 grapput, 1/4 pardotte and other vines.”
Vins rouges d’ordinaire, produits par 1/2 malbec (parde), 1/4 grapput, 1/4 pardotte et autres cépages
“Red wines, made from 1/3 malbec, 1/3 merlot, grosse parde and grapput, 1/3 verdot, pardotte, moustouzère, and others.”
Vins rouges, produits par 1/3 malbec, 1/3 merlot, grosse parde et grapput, 1/3 verdot, pardotte, moustouzère et autres
“Red wines, generally made from 1/4 malbec (côte rouge) and 3/4 common vines: grapput, piquepout, panereuil, fer, bois droit, petite and grosse pardotte.”
Vins rouges, gén. produits par 1/4 malbec (côte rouge) et 3/4 cépages communs : grapput, piquepout, panereuil, fer, bois droit, petite et grosse pardotte
“We believe that the Petite-Parde of the Graves must mean the Gros-Machouquet.”
Nous croyons que la Petite-Parde des Graves doit désigner le Gros-Machouquet.
Sources
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, Cépages de vignes rouges, p. 21, Pignon
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874, Cépages de vignes rouges, Pignon
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874, Entre-deux-Mers communes
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 6th ed., 1893, p. 18
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 7th ed., 1898, ampélographie: Massoutet, Petite-Parde, Pignon
- Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922, p. 14
- Pierre Viala, Les maladies de la vigne, 1893, mildiou
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 8936 (PARDOTTE), accessed October 2026
- Armand d'Armailhacq, La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc, 1855
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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