August 2016

The wine guide
de Thémine, who decided it was best to flee
to Louisiana during the French Revolution,
bequeathing his prized lands to none other than
his lowly yet trusted farmer, Flucran Reyne. The
current owners are his direct descendents.
Although biodynamics is a relatively new system
of farming and philosophy, which considers the
lunar calendar as well as the exclusion of all the
artificial chemicals, the unwavering, age-old belief
in respecting one’s terroir is evident.
Despite the heavy marketing for chemical
pesticides and herbicides in the 1960s, Benoit’s
grandfather continued to refuse to change his
traditional methods of farming.
And it really isn’t just a marketing ploy. It’s thanks
to this revolution – or perhaps it’s better to
say revival – that the Languedoc, a region long
lamented for churning out mass-produced plonk,
is gaining such recognition from wine writers and
critics all over the world.
Advertorial
Philippe Polleux visits a
winery reinvigorating one of
France's oldest regions
Domaine Malavieille is a Languedoc winery that
embodies a new wave of biodynamic producers
who are innovating yet also engaging intimately
with the past.
With 30 different varieties on offer, including
carignan, grenache, merlot and cabernet
sauvignon, look out for Languedoc next time
you're buying a bottle.
Philippe Polleux is a wine expert and French specialist
wine buyer for Vinarius.
Vinarius is a wine merchant and enoteca located at
536 Roman Road, London, E3.
vinarius.london
It was during my last trip to France that I had
the opportunity to meet Benoit Bertrand, the
domaine’s owner, viticulturist and winemaker.
He showed me a vineyard packed full of his thickstalked,
ancient vines, some of which are up to
90 years old. It’s part of what allows him to make
such full-bodied, intense and complex wines
at the family-run estate, which sits on the red
foothills beneath the beginnings of the Cévennes
mountains.
The name Malavieille originally referred to
a 10th-century castle owned by a Monsieur
Try a glass of Domaine Malavieille at Vinarius
28 LOVEEAST