Posts tagged as:

Faugères

True schist: The Barral brothers ride again

January 25, 2010

One of my favorite winemakers, and the person I interviewed for my very first Vine Route article, is Didier Barral of Domaine Léon Barral. Barral and his brother Jean-Luc make some of the best wine in the Faugères Wine Appellation in the Haut Languedoc region north of Béziers.
The frères Barral were recently featured in a [...]

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The Château des Estanilles: under new direction

October 28, 2009

I wrote about the Château des Estanilles back in May of this year. It was just my second Vine Route article, and I was pleased to meet Michel Louison and to hear about his exploits with the Faugères schist—particularly his high-density plantation of Syrah on an impossibly steep hillside, the highest spot overlooking the village [...]

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The Château de la Liquière: Taking Faugères forward

September 24, 2009

The Château de la Liquière mirrors, in many ways, the Faugères appellation. The Vidal family has been making wine here since the 1700s. Jean Vidal, the father of the present owner, Bernard Vidal, helped to create in the early 1950s, along with his brother Lucien and a third winemaker, the VDQS (Vin Délimité de Qualité [...]

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Harvesting French grapes and a lifetime of memories

September 9, 2009

Father-son outings are always special. So I was pleased with the enthusiasm my 12-year-old son displayed when I asked if he’d like to accompany me to pick grapes on the first Saturday in September. He had wanted to accompany me last year when I helped Pierre, a family friend, harvest his grapes in the tiny [...]

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The inspired Michel Louison of Chateau des Estanilles

May 16, 2009

The first thing you notice about the Chateau des Estanilles is that it’s closer to a Roman villa than a chateau. I’m an American whose primary method of selecting a French wine in the Pennsylvania State Liquor Stores where I shopped for wine before coming to France was the “Chateau de something-or-other” on the label. [...]

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