Par Guillaume Erblang
There is something unusual about Clos de Vènes before the first bottle is even opened. Sylvie and Christophe Jacquel did not inherit a domaine, a cellar or a family method they were expected to preserve. When they arrived in Saint-Couat-d’Aude in 2011, the original project was not about wine but hospitality. The vineyard came later, first almost by accident, through a few abandoned vines and a growing curiosity about the land surrounding them. The garage Christophe had imagined for his collection of old cars gradually became a cellar.
Fourteen vintages later, Clos de Vènes has become an eleven-hectare estate between Minervois and Corbières, producing around 25,000 bottles a year. The vineyards are farmed organically, no grapes are purchased outside the estate, and many of the vines are several decades old. Yet the most revealing part of the project may be the way the Jacquels have chosen to interpret what they found here.