[3] Villard noir was once widely grown in the South West France wine region with some plantings also found in Bordeaux.
A few reasons for the Villards’ popularity were the varieties’ relative ease of cultivation, their resistance to downy mildew, and prolific yields.
During these peak years there were more than 30,000 and 21,000 hectares of Villard noir and blanc, respectively, planted over a swatch of southern France that stretched from Bordeaux all the way to the northern Rhone.
For the rest of the century, both Villard varieties as well as several other hybrid grapes (like Baco noir, Chambourcin, Couderc and Plantet) were targeted by aggressive vine-pull schemes where growers were paid substantial amounts to uproot their vineyards and either replant with more "noble grapes" or different agriculture crops.
The few exceptions are isolated old vine plantings in the departments of Ardèche and Tarn which survived the vine-pulling period of the late 20th century.
[1] Today, both Villard grapes can be found in limited plantings in various American wines regions including Missouri, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.