Clos des Fées

Herve Bizeul continues to supplement his by now iconic range of Clos des Fees wines with intriguing and serious experiments. DAVID SCHILDKNECHT

Hervé Bizeul’s confidence and willingness to turn the page has already led to various highs and lows in his vinous career. He became Meilleur Jeune Sommelier de France in 1981, opened a fashionable wine bar in Paris and in the 1990s published an ambitious directory of wine producers and professionals, Grappes, which saw three editions. In 1997 he visited Vingrau. ‘I was fed up with Paris and impressed by the terroir at Vingrau so decided to buy a parcel of vines to cultivate as a hobby,’ ... The ball rolled quickly from there. A house, marriage to Claudine, the offer of other parcels of unwanted old-vine Carignan, Grenache and Lladoner Pelut at a knock-down price and before he knew it he was faced with the 1998 vintage. ‘I had no practical experience of winemaking – only what I’d learned as a journalist – but friends like Gérard Gauby helped. 1998 turned out to be a great year.’ The first vintage was vinified in one cellar, pressed in another and aged in a third.
It was in 1999 that he clearly defined the direction he wanted to take and the line of wines he intended to produce. ‘The Agly valley has schist, gneiss and clay-limestone soils but I have only bought parcels of vines on clay-limestone as these produce wines that correspond to my taste – rich, powerful with fine tannins and the ability to age,’ JAMES LAWTHER MW, Decanter