Jean-Luc and Claude Bohler the owners of Domaine de Cantausell
DOMAINE de CANTAUSSEL '....a hidden gem nestling in the hills'
The view from Matthew Stubbs MW
'This ancient Winery is named after the old Occitan word for song bird and is a very special place indeed. Perched high up in the hills overlooking the village of Siran this is an estate that takes some finding even though there are signs. Like the nearby “Curiosité de Lauriole” (one of those strange places where you let the handbrake off the car and it starts to roll uphill) this place seems to have remained an enigma to people who live nearby. Many locals themselves have not heard of the Winery, so well is it hidden in the hills. Yet if you travel just 2 kms outside the village climbing into the foothills of the Montagne Noir you will come across this hidden gem nestling in the hillside.
'This is no state-of –the-art winery, just a typical family-owned Languedoc property set in a perfect location, although Jean-Luc Bohler has invested in new stainless steel fermentation tanks and a custom built, vaulted barrel cellar. Facing due south, at an altitude of 350 metres all the vineyards are situated on slopes. This gives the maximum opportunity for reaching optimum maturity, but the height above sea level means it is up to 3 degrees cooler than down below on the plains giving the wines a freshness and structure to age. Most of the vineyards are situated in the Cru La Livinière – one of very few villages in the Languedoc to be granted its own appelation.'
Jean-Luc will be delighted to show you round their beautiful Winery - a real secret of the Languedoc!
Why did you become a wine maker?
In Jean-Luc’s words, ‘Certainly not to make a fortune! Above all we purchased Cantaussel to give life back to an ancient, abandoned domaine that we knew had great promise, to give people work and to fight the increasing mechanisation and commercialisation of wine making’.
Jean-Luc continues, ‘From a personal point of view it’s a matter of a second, and different life for me, a return to the land and a new activity that brings us into contact with nature. Wine making has given us the opportunity to master and be part of all the stages in the development of the French wine from the cultivation through to the finished product’.
The choice of Cantaussel was a coup de coeur (an affair of the heart). Jean-Luc and Claude discovered Cantaussel one day in June 1995 and immediately fell in love with this beautiful, but abandoned estate and knew it was where they wanted to settle.
What is your winemaking philosophy?
Their approach is to produce wine that is natural, authentic and is an expression of the terroir. Their cultivation methods are to use minimum intervention, respecting the land and the natural soil biology. They severely limit the use of pesticides to those absolutely necessary for controlled cultivation, allowing nature (the land and the climate) to express itself.
The goal is a healthy harvest, with small yields and maximum grape maturity. This is combined with modern wine making equipment but following traditional methods.
The History of Winery de Cantaussel
An ancient domaine on the petit causse (small limestone plateau), 10 kilometres from the village of Minerve. Most of the Winery is 250 -350 metres above sea level and it is in an isolated position surrounded by the garrigue. This is an area of poor land that makes the vines work to produce small yields of high quality grapes and, just as the parent rock it came from, the land is very steep. The continued fight against erosion made it necessary to create terraces retained by large blocks of rock and dry stone walls patiently assembles over the course of centuries.
The Winery was established, at least four centuries ago. Over the years there have been at least three families living there, and three farmhouses. The current home of Jean-Luc and Claude, dating from the 1700s. However, the history of the place is much older as it is believed there are remains of a Gallo-Roman fort on the Winery, on the top of Mont St. Martin, as well as many dolmens and pre-historic burial places scattered across the nearby plateau. In fact the family often uncover Roman pottery and other artifacts.
Wine making Facilities
When the Bohlers first bought the Winery, at the start of 1996, it had not been making wine for 50 years and sold its grapes to the cooperative. As a result they immediately began, with the help of an architect, to build a modern cellar (with tanks, and barrel cellar) hollowed into the rock that remains naturally cool. The gradient of the land dictated that the best size for the cellar was single storey with a terrace on top for receiving the grapes during the vendange. This allows the grapes to be processed and the part finished wines to be moved entirely by gravity.
The Bohlers have installed small and medium sized, temperature controlled, stainless steel cuvées. These are stacked on top of each other with this double arrangement allowing fermentation and vinification in the top tanks and wine storage and maturation in the lower tanks. There is a new barrel cellar where they keep an impressive array of wooden barrels at a perfect temperature. They have a small, mobile pneumatic press that is placed directly below the hatch of the upper tank in order to draw the wine from one tank to the other by gravity, transferring the marc (pips, skin and juice) to the press when fermentation is complete, and then feeding it into the lower tanks. The aim of this arrangement is to reduce mechanical intervention as much as possible when handling the grapes and the marc. Of course they are also well equipped for the pigeage (breaking the cap during fermentation) and délestage (desteming).
How Big is the Winery?
The total Winery is 26 hectares of which 12ha is under vine. The Winery also produces small quantities of olives and olive oil.
Grape Varieties (Cépages)
The Winery is planted to the following cepages
Syrah: 3.81 Hectares, Grenache: 3.14 Hectares, Carignan: 1.75 Hectares, Mourvèdre: 0.50 Hectares, Cinsault:0.30 Hectares, Rolle: 0.45 Hectares
The age of the vines varies between 5 and 50 years old.
Classification of Vines
8.51 ha are classified as AOC Minervois with 2ha classified as AOC Cru La Livinière. The balance of 1.45 ha are Vin De Pays.
Yields
Yields are kept low at between 20-30 hectolitres per hectare to ensure concentration and quality.
Cultivation
The vines are planted to c4000 -5000 plants per hectare with just under 4ha trained as goblet and the balance trained as palissage.
The Winery uses a cultivation regime called culture raisonnée which minimises chemical inputs to the vineyard. This uses natural defence mechanisms in the soil to combat infection and disease and ensures a more natural end product. The grapes are 100% hand harvested.
Soil characteristics and vineyard exposure
The soil at Cantaussel is a clay-limestone with some sandstone. The landscape is sloping with the vineyards having a South West, South and South-Easterly exposure. The height of the vineyard varies between 250 and 350 metres above sea level. The land is stony on the surface (although cooler and wetter deeper down) consisting of sediments of eroded calcareous rock that gathered in a north-south facing valley. Many of the vineyards are protected by ancient dry stone wall terraces.
