Principal red grape
Petit 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.
Petit Verdot is a slow-ripening black grape with no known parents, the old grape of the Bordeaux palus, which nearly vanished in the 20th century and is being planted again.
Petit Verdot is a black grape with small bunches and no known parents; VIVC, the international grape catalog, files it under the prime name Verdot Petit. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, summed it up in 1874: “It has a very small bunch, gives a full-bodied and fine wine, yields little” (“Il a la grappe très-petite; fournit un vin corsé et fin ; produit peu”). The old books knew several verdots, the petit and the gros among them, so “verdot” alone, in an old text, may not mean this grape.
In the oldest texts it is the grape of the palus, the former marshland along the rivers. Auguste Petit-Lafitte, professor of agriculture of the Gironde, in La vigne dans le Bordelais (1868), quotes the writer Secondat (1785): the verdot “forms the core of the vines of Queyries and the other good vines of the palus” (“fait le fond des vignes de Quegries et des autres bonnes vignes des Palus”). Alexander Henderson, in his History of Ancient and Modern Wines (1824), wrote: “Here, as well as in Medoc, the best species of grape is the verdot.” Armand d’Armailhacq, a Médoc proprietor, explained in 1855 that it gave the palus wines “so much quality that the idea came to carry it into the Médoc” (“il leur donne tant de qualité, qu'on a eu l'idée de le transporter en Médoc”).
In the Médoc it went into the great wines. D’Armailhacq found it in Château-Margaux, Rauzan, and the grand wines of that district, and in quantity at Pichon-Longueville, though it had to ripen fully or it brought greenness to the blend. Its weaknesses told in time. In 1922 the guide of Cocks and Féret added: “very prone to coulure; it is hardly grown any more” (“très sujet à la coulure ; on ne le cultive presque plus”). Figures from the ampelographer Pierre Galet, as presented by Julia Riffault in 2017, give 679 hectares around Bordeaux in 1958 and 335 in 1988.
Then the curve turned. Clone 1058 came in 2000, when Bordeaux had only about 375 hectares of Petit Verdot, as James Lawther MW reports in “The Phoenix Grape” (2020), where he cites CIVB figures of 1,093 hectares in Bordeaux for 2018. Clones 1273 and 1274 were approved by a FranceAgriMer decision of August 2018. Agreste, the statistics service of the French agriculture ministry, counts a gain of 844 hectares in the Gironde between 1988 and 2018.
Oldest record in my library: “petit verdot”, 1736, in abbé Bellet’s catalog of the vines of Bordeaux and Cadillac, as printed in Viala and Vermorel, Ampélographie, vol. 1, 1910; “Petit verdot”, 1785, in Jean-Baptiste de Secondat, Mémoire sur la culture des vignes de la Guienne; “le petit verdot”, 1816, in André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus
The family
Parents unknown.
Petit Verdot
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Verdot, Verdot-Rouge, Verdot de Guienne, Carmelin, Plant-des-Palus.
Other names in VIVC: Bouton, Carmelin, Heran, Herrant, Lambrusquet, Lambrusquet Noir, Petit Verdau, Petit Verdot, Petit Verdot Noir, Petite Verdot, Plant De Palus, Verdau, Verdot, Verdot Rouge.
Old names: Verdot (open), Verdot-de-Palus (open)
In today’s rules
Principal (red) in 15 of the appellations and designations on this site; principal (rosé) in 1; principal (sparkling) in 1; accessory (red) in 12.
- Principal · red
- Bordeaux (red and clairet), Bordeaux Supérieur, Entre-deux-Mers, Graves, Graves de Vayres, Haut-Médoc, Listrac-Médoc, Margaux, Moulis, Médoc, Pauillac, Pessac-Léognan, Pomerol, Saint-Estèphe, Saint-Julien
- Principal · rosé
- Bordeaux
- Principal · sparkling
- Crémant de Bordeaux
- Accessory · red
- Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux (under 15% of the vines), Canon Fronsac (to 10% each), Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux (to 15%), Côtes de Bordeaux (under 15% of the vines), Côtes de Bourg (to 5% of the vines), Francs Côtes de Bordeaux, Fronsac, Lalande-de-Pomerol (to 10%), Lussac-Saint-Émilion (to 10% of the vines), Montagne-Saint-Émilion (to 10%), Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion (to 10% of the vines), Saint-Émilion (to 10%)
Area planted
- 1,093 ha planted area, Bordeaux, 2018
James Lawther MW, 'The Phoenix Grape' (2020), in On Bordeaux, ed. S. Keevil, Académie du Vin Library, p. 41, citing 'the 2018 CIVB' figures - 375 ha planted area, Bordeaux, 2000
James Lawther MW, 'The Phoenix Grape' (2020), in On Bordeaux, ed. S. Keevil, Académie du Vin Library, p. 41, citing 'the 2018 CIVB' figures; a secondary figure, and not the low point: Plantgrape gives 338 ha for all of France in 1988 - 679 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1958
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 501 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1968
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 420 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1979
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 335 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1988
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 374.7 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1999
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 829.4 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 2015
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 260 % increase change in planted area since 2000, as the Wine Scholar Guild reports, Bordeaux, 2000-2022
Wine Scholar Guild / M. Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition (2024), Unit 2, pp. 41-47 (secondary textbook)
Stands out at
In the books
“The vineyard, lying wholly on gravel rises, is planted with fine grapes: cabernet-sauvignon on 30 hectares, malbec and merlot on 10, petit verdot on 7.”
Le vignoble entièrement situé sur des croupes graveleuses, est com- planté de cépages fins : cabernet-sauvignon sur 30 hect. ; malbec et merlot sur 10 hect. ; petit verdot sur 7 hect.
“The leading grapes are petit-verdot and, above all, carmenère.”
Les cépages dominants sont le petit - verdot , et principale- ment la carmenère .
“He has planted there only the 3 grapes petit verdot, merlot, and cabernet-sauvignon, and never destems the harvest.”
Il y a planté exclusivement les trois cépages petit verdot, merlot et cabernet-sauvignon, et n'égrappe jamais la vendange
“The estate covers about 100 hectares in one piece, 30 of them in vines, planted mainly with cabernet-sauvignon and petit verdot.”
La superficie du domaine est de 100 hectares environ , d'un seul tenant , dont 30 en vignes , encépagés principalement de cabernet - sauvignon et de petit verdot
My library records it planted at 47 estates, and 7 of them have a page here:
Timeline
- 1816Jullien lists 'le gros et le petit verdot' among the Gironde's red vines and says they give well-colored, firm wines that keep a long time.
André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, ch. XX 'Guienne et Gascogne', §I Gironde, pp. 198-201 - 1824Franck names 'le petit Verdot' and 'le gros Verdot' among the best red varieties of the department.
Wilhelm Franck, Traité sur les vins du Médoc, 1st ed., 1824 - 1869Phylloxera is found on vine roots at Floirac, near Bordeaux, on June 11, 1869; the vines had looked sick for 2 or 3 years.
Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 5th ed., 1886, section 'Phylloxera', p. 35 (same text in the 1883 English ed., and 6th ed. 1893) - 1958About 679 ha in Bordeaux, falling to 335 ha by 1988.
J. Riffault 2017 (Rencontres des cépages modestes), citing Galet 2006 and FranceAgriMer 2017, https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf - 2000Clone 1058 is introduced; Bordeaux has only about 375 ha of Petit Verdot (2000).
James Lawther MW, 'The Phoenix Grape' (2020), in On Bordeaux, Académie du Vin Library, pp. 41-43 - 2018CIVB figures show 1,093 ha of Petit Verdot in Bordeaux.
James Lawther MW, 'The Phoenix Grape' (2020), in On Bordeaux, Académie du Vin Library, pp. 41-43 - 2018Two further clones, 1273 and 1274, are approved.
FranceAgriMer, Décision INTV-CONTNORM-2018-35 of August 23, 2018, art. 2, adding clones 1273 and 1274 of Petit Verdot N (IFV, ENTAV-INRA) to the list of approved clones; James Lawther MW, 'The Phoenix Grape' (2020), in On Bordeaux, Académie du Vin Library, p. 43, gives 2019
In the lab
More than 441 studies and theses in the Bordeaux Reviews library mention this grape.
- L'exploration de la diversité variétale en production viticole à fin d'adaptation au changement climatique à travers des approches écophysiologiques, chimiques et sensorielles. Application au vignoble bordelais
Marc Plantevin, 2025 - No major impact of new grape varieties on Bordeaux wine typicity: expert assessments in blind and non-blind tastings
Marc Plantevin, Sophie Tempère, Cécile Thibon, Lucile Dijkstra, Julien Lecourt, Agnès Destrac-Irvine, Cornelis van Leeuwen, 2025 - Characterization of varietal effects on the acidity and pH of grape berries for selection of varieties better adapted to climate change
Marc Plantevin, Yoann Merpault, Julien Lecourt, Agnès Destrac-Irvine, Lucile Dijsktra, Cornelis van Leeuwen, 2024 - Etude de l'arôme fruité des vins rouges via les interactions perceptives entre composés volatils d'intérêt dans le contexte de changement climatique pour le vignoble bordelais
Justine Garbay, 2024 - Recherche sur les voies de formation des lactones contribuant à l'arôme des vins rouges de bordeaux
Philippine de Ferron, 2022
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 12974 (VERDOT PETIT), accessed October 2026
- Charles Cocks (rev. Édouard Féret), Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874, Cépages de vignes rouges, p. 18
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, Paris, J. Rothschild, 1868 (title page: 'Professeur d'agriculture du dép. de Gironde')
- Alexander Henderson, The History of Ancient and Modern Wines, London, 1824
- Armand d'Armailhacq, La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc, 1855, ch. 2
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922, Ampélographie, p. 14
- Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides citing Galet, Cépages et vignobles de France, t. III (2006) and FranceAgriMer 2017, https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed October 2026
- James Lawther MW, 'The Phoenix Grape', in On Bordeaux, ed. S. Keevil, Académie du Vin Library, 2020, pp. 41-43
- Agreste Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Études n°7 (June 2020, rectificatif), C. Lavaud and J. Bonotaux, '1. Le foncier viticole: la Gironde', p. 73 text and Figure 2, https://draaf.nouvelle-aquitaine.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/AgresteNAEtudes_7juin2020_FFvitiGironde_RECTIFICATIF_cle0edc51.pdf, accessed October 2026
- André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, ch. XX, §I Gironde
- Charles Cocks (rev. Édouard Féret), Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874 (Château-Lanessan)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 5th ed., 1886, p. 144 (Angludet)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 7th ed., 1898 (Maucaillou)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922 (château Talbot)
- 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)
- Jean-Baptiste de Secondat, Mémoires sur l’histoire naturelle du chêne […], sur la culture de la vigne, et sur le vin de la Guienne, Paris, De Bure fils aîné, 1785
- FranceAgriMer, Décision INTV-CONTNORM-2018-35 of August 23, 2018, art. 2, adding clones 1273 and 1274 of Petit Verdot N (IFV, ENTAV-INRA) to the list of approved clones
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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