Pécharmant

« Pécharmant: international, age-old success. » The estate is among some thirty viticultural properties in Pécharmant, the « appellation d’origine protégée » set over 420 hectares on the northern banks of the Dordogne. More understated and lesser-known than its neighbours of Bergerac, Monbazillac and Duras, Pécharmant takes its name from the word Pech – “flat, raised place” in Occitan – and means “ the charming hill ”. This is the place where, between the 11th and 12th centuries, the oldest vine-growing region in Bergerac was born, when the monks of the Saint-Martin de Bergerac monastery prepared for the northern “vinée” (harvest of wine). It was recognised as an AOC in 1946.

North America, England, Japan, China… Although the wines of Périgord are now exported around the world, this foreign popularity is rooted in the long history of Aquitaine and international maritime trade. From the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages, when Aquitaine was becoming “the finest garden of the British Crown”, the vineyards of Pécharmant already enjoyed extensive privileges that helped its wines to be traded with its powerful protector. After the Hundred Years’ War, during the Reform, the Netherlands, which that dominated international maritime trade at the time went on to become the other major destination, along with their colonies, for Pécharmant wines.