2009 · Le Clos des Fées

Domaine du Clos des Fées is a family-run Roussillon estate founded in 1998 by Hervé Bizeul and co-owned with his wife, Claudine. Based in the Agly Valley around Vingrau, it farms a mosaic of more than 100 scattered plots on steep limestone, schist, granite, gneiss and clay-rich soils, including many very old vines. The domaine is noted for careful, manual vineyard work, low yields and a terroir-focused approach, having also revived abandoned vineyards and olive groves. Farming is sustainable and low-intervention, with no herbicides, minimal chemical treatments, horse-manure compost, mycorrhizae and sexual-confusion methods, though no formal certification is cited. From old-vine sites in a rugged, geologically diverse landscape, Clos des Fées produces distinctive, author-driven wines with a strong sense of place.