Domaine de condorcet 1996
In 1877, Joseph Ducos, a former military officer, bought the Château de la Nerthe and his 59 hectares of vines, which were largely decimated by phylloxera in 1866. His wife, Zoé Berton, was the daughter of Léon Berton, owner of the Domaine Condorcet bordering that of Nerthe. Note that Amable Berton, Zoe's grandfather was the first wine grower to introduce Syrah to Châteauneuf du Pape around 1830.
Determined to solve the problem of phylloxera, Joseph Ducos used his engineering training in 1877 and understood that the solution to fight against this scourge would be the use of American rootstocks. The opportunity for him, through his researches, to introduce new grape varieties in the appellation: Cinsault, Counoise, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Muscardin, Picpoul, Petite Syrah, Vaccarése, Bourboulenc and Clairette. Ten of the grape varieties selected still appear today in the thirteen grape varieties of the appellation decree. After rebuilding the vineyard, he bought in 1890 the 37 hectares of Domaine Condorcet (including 5 hectares are in the town of Sorgues) to his father-in-law, Amable Berton.
Nowadays the vineyard of Condorcet, belongs to the family Bouche, who acquired it at the beginning of the twentieth century. The vineyard, whose average age is 40 years old, now extends over 15 hectares of Châteauneuf du Pape, 6 hectares of Côtes du Rhône and 5 hectares of “Vin de Pays”. The current grape variety includes 7 of the grape varieties of the appellation: Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvèdre for the reds, and Bourboulenc, Clairette, Roussanne for the whites.