Mas Foulaquier

Located in the heart of the Mediterranean scrubland landscape, the Foulaquier wine estate is anchored in a place whose historical roots date back to the year 1000. The archives of the estate bear witness to a rich history, marked by numerous families of owners, from the Brissacs to the Condamys, up to the last farmers, André and his father, who exploited these lands until 1974. The history of this domaine is also marked by the meeting between a place and two people passionate about wine. Pierre, an architect, discovered Mas Foulaquier in 1998. His intense desire to work in an artisanal profession and to put his hands in the earth pushed him to exchange his career as an architect to become a winemaker. In 2003, Blandine, a parliamentary civil servant in Paris, joined him after being seduced by the world of wine: she then carried out harvests in Cairanne, pruning in Muscadet, writing a book entitled "Portraits of Winegrowers", BTS viticulture and oenology of Mâcon. The couple thus united their common passion for viticulture and decided to make Mas Foulaquier their home. Since the very first vintage in 1999, the Foulaquier estate has undergone significant evolution and continues to develop. The vines are cultivated without the use of chemicals, the harvest is done manually, and the winemaking excludes the use of oenological products. In 2005, the estate obtained organic certification, and in 2006, it turned to biodynamics after meeting Valérie and Philippe Chaume-Arnaud, winegrowers in Vinsobres, and their advisor Jacques Mell. Biodynamics is more than just a method; for them it is a philosophy based on values, it aims to preserve the natural balance of the land, to promote the health of the soil, the well-being of the vines and their resistance to disease. This virtuous approach has a positive impact on the quality of the wines produced by the estate. Biodynamic practices include the use of preparations such as horn dung, composted cow dung, silica, and decoctions of plants and flowers. The harvest at Mas Foulaquier is carried out exclusively by hand, using 20 kg boxes. The delicate treatment of the grapes continues in the cellar, where no aggressive method is tolerated, the couple thus avoids any pumping or addition of yeasts and sulphites which could alter the quality of the wine. The estate also has a cellar specially built in 1999, allowing the vinification, aging and bottling of the entire production on site. Vinification is carried out in small capacity concrete vats and frustoconical French oak vats. The objective is not to follow an immutable method, but rather to adapt to the characteristics of each year's harvest. The grape varieties are vinified separately, the vatting periods vary from 2 to 6 weeks, and the devatting is carried out manually without pumping, following a philosophy which favors balance, finesse and expression of the fruit rather than the power obtained by excessive extraction. .