Domaine de Cébène

Domaine de Cébène

【Faugères at its most balanced, elegant and refined】

Set high in the protected Faugères heritage area within the Haut-Languedoc regional nature park, Domaine de Cébène makes wines of both power and delicacy that speak clearly of their terroir.

The estate was founded in 2007 by Brigitte Chevalier, who had spent ten years as export manager at Château Valandraud in Bordeaux, together with her family. They acquired a handful of small, largely north-facing parcels of old vines between twenty and more than seventy years of age. From eleven hectares at 300 metres of altitude, the aim is to draw out the character of an exceptional terroir built on a remarkable bed of schist.

Farmed organically, the terraces look out over a sweeping panorama, ringed by the garrigue and the great oak forests that run through the heart of the Faugères vineyard. Forty-five kilometres away the coastline and the deep blue of the Mediterranean come into view, while to the west rise the Pyrenees and the magnificent Canigou.

One of the great singularities of Cébène's terroir lies in its exceptionally deep bed of schist. No other rock is mixed into it, and the surface carries only the thinnest layer of organic matter.

That structure forces the vines to root deeply, drawing what they need from the fissures between the layers of schist. It imposes a natural restraint on the plant while guaranteeing a steady supply of water that shelters it from the swings of the climate.

This is, without question, the mark of a great terroir, and the source of the genuine minerality that runs through the wines of Cébène.

Unusually for the Languedoc, Cébène's vines are planted on north-facing slopes. Today this counts as a real asset, encouraging the cleansing flow of fresh air that comes down from the forests and the high ground surrounding the Faugères terroir.

It is this combination of conditions that gives wines of balance, elegance and poise.