Hervé Bizeul, a sommelier, restaurateur, and food and wine journalist, settled here in 1998, starting with four resin vats and a pump. That first year, he made the wine at one friend's house, pressed it at another's, and aged it at a third's. Year after year, he converted his home's garage into a winery, while the vineyard grew (from 7 hectares in 1999 to almost 30 in 2010) and the number of barrels for ageing increased.
The old vines are planted on clay-limestone soils among large holm oaks.
The plots span a wide diversity of terroirs. Vingrau, on limestone slopes, has very high-pH soils that produce dense, structured wines with great ageing potential.
Tautavel, with red alluvial clays and a high proportion of rounded pebbles (similar to those of Châteauneuf), gives Mourvèdre superb concentration. Maury, home to part of the Grenache Noir and Syrah, has dark, thin soils that force the vines to root deeply. Bélesta, with magmatic gneiss and granite, brings spicy notes and extreme finesse to Syrah. And Calce, with clay-limestone soils, gives exceptional richness to the house's great wine, La Petite Sibérie.
Hervé and his wife, Claudine, focus on finding the best terroirs and on meticulous winemaking to achieve their ideal: "fruit wine". Clos des Fées wines are sold en primeur.
