francis ingrand
Château Capion
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Region :
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APPELLATION :
A unique chateau and estate in the heart of one of Occitanie's finest appellations, the Terrasses du Larzac.
Anecdotes about the domain
Since 2017, the château has opened its doors to accommodate its tasting room and make the park accessible to the public all year round. Château Capion develops the wine tourism activity around cultural and winegrowing events: concerts, contemporary art exhibitions and artists' residences in partnership with the MO.CO of Montpellier (contemporary art centre), flea markets, tango evenings, collective tastings with other winegrowers, ephemeral restaurants...
The domain's short story
The history of Chateau Capion can be traced through period manuscripts that describe the construction of the building in the 16th century. It was the Keittinger family who, upon purchasing the estate in 1873, began the restructuring and development of the estate as we know it today, and as we read in their memoirs, the Château was already associated with the houses, gardens, woods and olive groves that we know today. At that time, the vines occupied 12 hectares of the estate. Despite the natural dryness of the soil (stones), the Gassac, a small stream coming straight from the Cevennes, brought fertility around it. In the 1880's, Mr. Keittinger restored the castle and developed the estate with the construction of large cellars and outbuildings. Despite his efforts, phylloxera ravaged the French vineyard and the Domaine Capion had to graft vines imported from the United States onto the remaining vines.
The winemaker's pride
Our estate is located in the terroir of Aniane in the Hérault, near Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. We cultivate about 50 hectares of vines in organic conversion (AB label for the 2020 vintage) located around the 19th century castle. Our wines are classified as AOP Terrasses du Larzac, AOP Languedoc or IGP Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. On these particular terroirs, we grow Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault or Mourvèdre to compose our red wines. For the whites: Viognier, Roussanne, Chardonnay or Vermentino are among the grape varieties we use to blend our wines. Our vines are on average 30 years old. Here, all the work on the land and the vines is done by hand: from manual trellising to the disbudding of the fruit area. This is a way for us to produce wines that best express the aromas that make up our terroir.
Pictures of the domain
