Vieux Fournay

Château Vieux Fournay occupies 13 hectares within the appellation of Lussac Saint-Émilion, one of the most respected of the Saint-Émilion satellites, situated on the Right Bank of the Gironde. This corner of Bordeaux is defined by its Merlot vocation — the grape finds here a natural home in soils that coax forth ripe red fruit with an ease and generosity not always found elsewhere in the region. The wines carry hallmark Right Bank aromatics: cherry, dark berry, and a distinctive liquorice note that adds depth and persistence to the palate. The 13-hectare estate offers enough scale to work with meaningful parcel selection while remaining small enough for rigorous attention to each vine.

Château Vieux Fournay is guided by a philosophy rooted in continuity, restraint, and an abiding confidence in the land. For Thierry Vergnaud, winemaking is not a discipline imposed upon the vineyard but a dialogue sustained across generations — the estate's century-and-a-half of unbroken family stewardship speaks to a conviction that the finest wines emerge not from intervention but from understanding. At the heart of this approach is an unwavering belief in Lussac Saint-Émilion as a place of genuine terroir character: the limestone-clay soils, the Merlot vocation, and the Right Bank's natural generosity are treated not as raw material to be shaped but as an inheritance to be honoured.

This philosophy finds its clearest expression in Insouciance, the estate's no-added-sulfite cuvée — a wine whose very name encapsulates a winemaking ethic of trust over precaution. To produce wine without the conventional chemical safety net is a statement of faith: faith in the quality of the fruit, the health of the vineyard, and the integrity of the cellar. It is a posture that sits naturally alongside the estate's longer values — patience, stewardship, and the quiet confidence of those who have tended the same land for more than 150 years. Vieux Fournay does not seek to impress through complexity manufactured in the cellar; it seeks, instead, to transmit the gourmandise that Lussac Saint-Émilion offers freely to those willing to listen.

The roots of Château Vieux Fournay reach back to 1870, when the Vergnaud family first established the domaine in Lussac Saint-Émilion. More than 150 years of unbroken family stewardship have shaped not only the estate's character but its deep, almost instinctive understanding of the land. Thierry Vergnaud, the current custodian, carries that long lineage forward — belonging to a line of vignerons for whom viticulture is not a profession adopted but a heritage lived. This continuity across generations gives Vieux Fournay a rare coherence: the same soils, the same appellation, tended by the same family name decade after decade.

Château Vieux Fournay produces two cuvées imported by La Cave Wines, each expressing the generous, fruit-forward character of Lussac Saint-Émilion with its own distinct register.

Insouciance is the estate's pure Merlot expression — and its name carries meaning. Vinified without added sulfites, it is a wine made, as its name suggests, without worry: a confident, natural statement from vines whose fruit speaks clearly enough to need no chemical safety net. Built on the same limestone-clay terroir that defines Lussac Saint-Émilion, it delivers the appellation's hallmark aromatics — ripe cherry, dark red berry, and that seductive thread of liquorice that gives Vieux Fournay wines their signature gourmandise. Supple in structure with a rounded, welcoming palate, Insouciance invites with its openness and disarms with its depth. The absence of added sulfites is not a gimmick but a declaration of trust: trust in the terroir, in the vintage, and in a century and a half of accumulated knowledge. For those drawn to wines of genuine transparency, it offers a rare window into what Merlot, in the right hands and the right soils, can be without interference.

The Red Blend, Bordeaux is the estate's approachable expression of Right Bank blending traditions. Built around Merlot's natural dominance in these limestone-clay soils, it delivers the hallmark aromatics of the appellation — ripe cherry, dark red berry, and the seductive thread of liquorice that gives Vieux Fournay wines their signature gourmandise. Supple in structure with a rounded, welcoming palate, it is a wine that speaks to the generosity of place and the ease with which this corner of Bordeaux gives pleasure.