Domaine d'Aupilhac

Domaine d'Aupilhac

Aupilhac makes its home in the village of Montpeyroux, thirty-six kilometres north-west of Montpellier in the Languedoc.

The name Montpeyroux comes from the old words for "stony mountain". Most of the vines lie in the lieu-dit known as Aupilhac, on sunlit, south-east-facing slopes.

Forty kilometres from the Mediterranean, this is a gentle Mediterranean climate blessed with abundant sunshine.

Because Montpeyroux sits at the foot of the Larzac plateau, its nights stay relatively cool even in high summer.

Mornings are often misty here too, and it is precisely this cooler pocket that gives the area such potential.

Aupilhac's twenty-two hectares are scattered across several sites, on soils that range widely from limestone to clay-limestone and gravel.

Rarer still, a seam of blue clay runs beneath them, holding just the right amount of moisture.

It is this damp clay layer that allows the vines to withstand the fierce drought so characteristic of the Languedoc.