At the Grand Guilhem estate: freedom and creation produce wines of great quality.

Gilles and Séverine Contrepois are the winegrowers of the Grand Guilhem estate, located in the heart of the Corbières on the Fitou appellation. The idea of an oenotourism project led them from the capital to the south of France where they have developed the Grand Guilhem estate in their own image. These natural wines that express the aromas of the terroir, original and memorable, are made with great passion and determination. Gilles tells us about his estate, his wines and his philosophy. He takes us on a journey through the vineyards of the Languedoc.

Gilles and Séverine leave Paris to become winegrowers in the Languedoc.

Gilles and Séverine arrived on the estate in 1997. Parisians, they one day decided to change their lives and went down to the Languedoc to become winemakers. "That's how the project came about", Gilles confides, "we wanted to do something else, we thought about it and we turned to a wine tourism project. "The couple then set off in search of their dream estate. They visited several appellations and finally settled in the Languedoc, in the Fitou appellation, on the estate they renamed: Domaine Grand Guilhem.

"We wanted an estate with a structure capable of welcoming holidaymakers. For us it was completely obvious. First of all because it is a financial plus. If one activity works better than the other, it can compensate. Then, we left Paris where we had a very important social life. We didn't want to lose it and we wanted to welcome people to keep in touch with the world. It seemed important to us," Gilles recalls.

The wines of Domaine Grand Guilhem : nuggets to discover

The Grand Guilhem estate produces wines of excellent quality and welcomes visitors: gite, tasting courses are offered to wine lovers.

On arrival, the estate is a member of a cooperative winery where the grapes are vinified. Patiently, year after year, the couple of new winegrowers work and develop the project to create their own cellar and vinify the wines on the estate. A long term work which will be completed in 2011 and will bear fruit as the Grand Guilhem estate now offers 9 different vintages : white wines, rosé wines, red wines, natural sweet wines, orange wines, complete vinification in barrels or maturing in jars ... certainly, Gilles is a great curious person who is not afraid to try.

"The jar allows micro-oxygenation, i.e. the wines to breathe, completely neutral unlike what we can have in barrels. It fixes the tannins and anthocyanins while giving a lot of purity," Gilles explains. A container that has many assets and that the winemaker knows how to exploit to make surprising wines.

"I work on intuition," he explains, "I don't have an established process. I chose this profession to feel completely free and to work as an artist.

A freedom claimed and assumed, in the name of which Gilles does not hesitate to leave the prestigious appellation of the region: the Fitou PDO. My wines did not conform to the profiles of the appellations. So I came out of it to regain the freedom to make the wines I like, that I like and that are a total respect for the terroir," Gilles explains.

Our favourite vintages of the domain:

Angels Fitou

The pointillist

Garnet Grand Guilhem

Organic agriculture and natural wines: the expression of the terroir

To the freedom of creation is added a will and convictions that push Gilles to convert the estate to organic farming as soon as he arrives. "I didn't think I'd work any other way. From the beginning I knew that I didn't want to use any weed killer or chemical fertilizer," says the winemaker, who remembers, amused: "It was in 1997, I passed for an original at the time.But it was obvious, I consider myself as a simple tenant of the land on which I work. »

In 2011, Gilles joins the Nature Wine Charter. "That is to say that in my wine, there are only grapes," the winemaker mischievously underlines. It's a fact: indigenous yeasts, a minimum of sulphites, no chemicals. "I think that there is no need for artifice to make a wine that is representative of the terroir. The aim of winemaking is to accompany the grape without being interventionist in order to please everyone. My wines please some people, and displease others; but they leave no one indifferent," Gilles concludes.

Don't hesitate to discover the wines of Domaine Grand Guilhem.

Manon Mouly (for Les Grappes)