Resilience and regeneration at Famille d’Exéa
Located in Languedoc’s Lézignan-Corbières, the 600-hectare Famille d’Exéa estate is home to Château de Sérame, thriving forests, and a 200-hectare single-plot vineyard. Passed down through the Exéa family since 1803, it is now led by fifth-generation president Anne Besse. Since taking over in 2018, Anne and her team have focused on regenerating the estate, blending tradition with innovation. They released their first vintage in 2020, the same year winemaker Mélanie Maurin joined. As Mélanie puts it, the wine is “fairly new, but with history.”
The team’s first priority was investing in soil health and biodiversity. They spent the first year carefully studying the land, cover cropping, and planting trees and shrubs between the vines. Agroforestry remains a focus today, and the team plants 500 trees each year. You’ll also find hundreds of Merino and Mourerous sheep grazing between the vines in the winter and elsewhere across the estate during the growing season, helping manage plant cover and fertilising the soil. The vineyard continues to be cultivated 100% organically, having first received certification in 2010. The team has focused on adopting biodynamic principles across the vines, utilising new technologies such as drones, robots, apps, and high-tech modelling to assist with implementation.
Back in 2018, the team planted an additional 50 hectares of vines, including 20 hectares with disease-resistant grape varieties Muscaris, Souvignier Gris, and Soreli. This strategic decision was made in response to increasing climate and disease pressures. The hot and humid climate in the south of France makes the region particularly prone to powdery mildew, and cultivating disease-resistant varieties promised a significant reduction in the number of treatments necessary, Mélanie explains. Their rationale was solid: disease-resistant grapes require fewer inputs, reduce costs and spraying-related emissions, and, if the wine is good, they bottle it; if not, it goes into blends.
Mélanie points out that since “grape varieties are different on every soil, you can’t predict what you’re going to end up with.” Fortunately, the team’s experimentation paid off. The winery has just finished bottling the two cuvées made from Muscaris and Souvignier Gris, and Soreli has been used in a blend.
There is one downside, however. The disease-resistant grape varieties were developed in Germany, meaning they ripen early in the hot southern French climate. This leaves no time for holidays in August, as the team must manage a stretched harvest beginning with Muscaris at the start of the month.
On the upside, the earlier harvest has provided an opportunity to tap into the growing no- and low-alcohol segment. The team decided to pick some of the other grapes earlier than usual, creating a range of single-varietal grape juices from Syrah, Chardonnay and Grenache, as well as two low-alcohol 9% ABV wines from Sauvignon Blanc and Grenache Gris. This too was a highly pragmatic decision. When considering how they could adapt to shifting consumer trends, they wanted to ensure they could still commit to their sustainability goals. Given that removing alcohol from wine is incredibly energy intensive, earlier harvests were the obvious choice for Famille d’Exéa.
The market for no- and low-alcohol is growing, and when I ask Mélanie how consumers might respond to the disease-resistant varietal wines, she seems confident. They already communicate about organic viticulture, biodiversity, and climate initiatives to their clients through the French “Planet Score” label, so explaining that these grapes use less inputs should be an added benefit. And from a taste perspective, it’s simple: If the wine isn’t perfect, they wouldn’t have made a bottle out of it.
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