August 2016
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The wine guide<br />
de Thémine, who decided it was best to flee<br />
to Louisiana during the French Revolution,<br />
bequeathing his prized lands to none other than<br />
his lowly yet trusted farmer, Flucran Reyne. The<br />
current owners are his direct descendents.<br />
Although biodynamics is a relatively new system<br />
of farming and philosophy, which considers the<br />
lunar calendar as well as the exclusion of all the<br />
artificial chemicals, the unwavering, age-old belief<br />
in respecting one’s terroir is evident.<br />
Despite the heavy marketing for chemical<br />
pesticides and herbicides in the 1960s, Benoit’s<br />
grandfather continued to refuse to change his<br />
traditional methods of farming.<br />
And it really isn’t just a marketing ploy. It’s thanks<br />
to this revolution – or perhaps it’s better to<br />
say revival – that the Languedoc, a region long<br />
lamented for churning out mass-produced plonk,<br />
is gaining such recognition from wine writers and<br />
critics all over the world.<br />
Advertorial<br />
Philippe Polleux visits a<br />
winery reinvigorating one of<br />
France's oldest regions<br />
Domaine Malavieille is a Languedoc winery that<br />
embodies a new wave of biodynamic producers<br />
who are innovating yet also engaging intimately<br />
with the past.<br />
With 30 different varieties on offer, including<br />
carignan, grenache, merlot and cabernet<br />
sauvignon, look out for Languedoc next time<br />
you're buying a bottle.<br />
Philippe Polleux is a wine expert and French specialist<br />
wine buyer for Vinarius.<br />
Vinarius is a wine merchant and enoteca located at<br />
536 Roman Road, London, E3.<br />
vinarius.london<br />
It was during my last trip to France that I had<br />
the opportunity to meet Benoit Bertrand, the<br />
domaine’s owner, viticulturist and winemaker.<br />
He showed me a vineyard packed full of his thickstalked,<br />
ancient vines, some of which are up to<br />
90 years old. It’s part of what allows him to make<br />
such full-bodied, intense and complex wines<br />
at the family-run estate, which sits on the red<br />
foothills beneath the beginnings of the Cévennes<br />
mountains.<br />
The name Malavieille originally referred to<br />
a 10th-century castle owned by a Monsieur<br />
Try a glass of Domaine Malavieille at Vinarius<br />
28 LOVEEAST