In 2023, Le Clos Vagabond moved to Feuilla, an unspoilt village in a Pyrenean Piedmont valley 10 km from the Mediterranean coast. This relocation enabled us to move away from the seafront, gaining 160 m in altitude. The aim was also to refocus our activities in a quality environment, favourable to biodiversity, with a vineyard in the immediate vicinity of the winery and to improve our working comfort.
This change required the construction of a new winery. We built it ourselves on the basis of an old wine hangar attached to our home. Local, sustainable materials were selected for this project, mainly wood from the Montagne Noire, straw from the Lauragais region, clay dug-out from the floor of the winery itself and, above all, a lot of elbow grease from a motivated team... It took a full year to transform this new winery.
Luckily, we were able to acquire two fantastic plots of land just a few hundred meters from the new winery. The first, on the village side, comprised of five parcels of vines covering 4.5 ha and 2 ha of meadow, and the second two parcels of vines covering 2 ha and 1.5 ha of meadow. Here we find the main grape varieties that have enabled us to make our wines since the first vintage: grenache blanc gris and noir, carignan, mourvèdre, cinsault and, as a surprise, a small plot of colombard. This terroir is composed mainly of sandy-clay loam soil over limestone, with high pH and fairly high magnesium and sodium levels. All these plots are certified organic, and we are taking numerous steps to develop the maximum amount of wildlife and diversity.
Grenache blanc in Feuilla
Le Matet
The plot of Mourvèdre vines at Matet (named after the Matet stream that runs along the southern edge of the plot) is planted on predominantly schistose soil. The only vineyard in the neighboring municipality of Treilles, with a total surface area of 80 ares, it is made up of three small plots separated by a large hedge. This is a far cry from the large monocultures found on our plains. Mourvèdre has been a Languedoc grape variety for centuries.