Clos Marie
Clos Marie is an estate located in the municipality of Lauret, a landscape of great scenic importance in Languedoc: managed by Marie Julien, it was inherited in the late 1990s by her granddaughter Françoise Julien, who now runs it with her husband Christophe Peyrus. Since then, the winery has progressively grown in visibility among the producers in the region, thanks to the meticulous and precise work undertaken both in the vineyard and in the cellar.
The vineyard of Clos Marie extends over 20 hectares in the territory of Pic Saint-Loup, a drop-shaped peak rising above 650 meters within the Cevennes complex: the mountain range occupies the southern part of the Massif Central, stretching parallel to the Mediterranean coast from southwest to northeast and forms the watershed between the basins of the Garonne, to the west, and the Rhône, to the east. The soils are quite varied, of fluvial origin and tendentially marly, scattered with gravel over limestone soils. Since 1995, the vines have been cultivated following the principles of biodynamic agriculture, a detail that earns Christophe and Françoise the title of pioneers of environmental sustainability and the pursuit of quality at all costs. Plantings of only native grape varieties chosen through mass selection, pruning according to the ancient bush system, and a dense planting density of 9,000 vines per hectare are the steps that have allowed the domaine to become one of the most renowned within the small and young denomination Pic-Saint-Loup, if not the entire Languedoc. Tradition is well respected for black berries, with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Carignan; and even more local are the white grape varieties: Roussanne and then ancient plants of Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Clairette, and Maccabeu, whose preservation requires a sincere respect for the environment.
Christophe Peyrus and Françoise Julien work in the cellar of Clos Marie with the same delicacy they dedicate to the vineyard. The alcoholic fermentations are conducted solely by indigenous yeasts, as are the malolactic fermentations which occur spontaneously. Minimal doses of sulfur dioxide are only used at bottling, and the wine is handled as little as possible, generally with a single racking. Patient maturation in wood, typically from 12 to 36 months, allows for the right structure to be imparted to the wines, avoiding filtration and stabilization: all creations have a typically Mediterranean expression and are characterized by the extreme finesse and the aromatic recognizability of a great terroir.
Clos Marie is an estate located in the municipality of Lauret, a landscape of great scenic importance in Languedoc: managed by Marie Julien, it was inherited in the late 1990s by her granddaughter Françoise Julien, who now runs it with her husband Christophe Peyrus. Since then, the winery has progressively grown in visibility among the producers in the region, thanks to the meticulous and precise work undertaken both in the vineyard and in the cellar.
The vineyard of Clos Marie extends over 20 hectares in the territory of Pic Saint-Loup, a drop-shaped peak rising above 650 meters within the Cevennes complex: the mountain range occupies the southern part of the Massif Central, stretching parallel to the Mediterranean coast from southwest to northeast and forms the watershed between the basins of the Garonne, to the west, and the Rhône, to the east. The soils are quite varied, of fluvial origin and tendentially marly, scattered with gravel over limestone soils. Since 1995, the vines have been cultivated following the principles of biodynamic agriculture, a detail that earns Christophe and Françoise the title of pioneers of environmental sustainability and the pursuit of quality at all costs. Plantings of only native grape varieties chosen through mass selection, pruning according to the ancient bush system, and a dense planting density of 9,000 vines per hectare are the steps that have allowed the domaine to become one of the most renowned within the small and young denomination Pic-Saint-Loup, if not the entire Languedoc. Tradition is well respected for black berries, with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Carignan; and even more local are the white grape varieties: Roussanne and then ancient plants of Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Clairette, and Maccabeu, whose preservation requires a sincere respect for the environment.
Christophe Peyrus and Françoise Julien work in the cellar of Clos Marie with the same delicacy they dedicate to the vineyard. The alcoholic fermentations are conducted solely by indigenous yeasts, as are the malolactic fermentations which occur spontaneously. Minimal doses of sulfur dioxide are only used at bottling, and the wine is handled as little as possible, generally with a single racking. Patient maturation in wood, typically from 12 to 36 months, allows for the right structure to be imparted to the wines, avoiding filtration and stabilization: all creations have a typically Mediterranean expression and are characterized by the extreme finesse and the aromatic recognizability of a great terroir.
