France, Languedoc
Mas Nicot vineyard has been in Stéphanie’s family since 1773. The fruits they grow used to be sold to the local cooperative. In 2004, she decided to isolate 8 hectares and make their own wine using organic farming, lowering the yields and producing around 8000 bottles of lovely, lovely wines. A motocross accident left her husband Fred paraplegic. In the vineyard, he found his new passion and life project.
In 2000, he started Domaine de la Marèle where he made his first vintage in 2001. Only one wine is made here, the crystallisation of Fred’s love for that patch of dirt.
“We first met thanks to wine, and now wine unites us”.
Frederic & Stephanie
Mas des Agrunelles is an 18-hectare project spread on 12 different plots, northwest of Montpellier. Due to its cool micro-climate, that part of the Languedoc never interested the large coops but produces fresh wines with lower alcohol levels. The estate takes its name from the local name for the sloe trees which abound on the property.
These become, advantages when it is a question of producing low yield high-class wines. The absence of drought which would cause to homogenize the temperature, causes enormous thermal amplitudes (it is not rare that in August one raises 7 or 8 degrees with the rising of the sun) allowing to reach, with the condition of controlling the outputs, phenolic maturity while preserving a total acidity and an astonishing pH for the area. This, associated with an adapted vine growing and some stone limestone grounds, convinced me to invest here rather than on a soil already recognized.
