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Le P’tit Spencer. 

50% Carignan, 25% Mourvedre, 25% Syrah.   Opaque, dark ruby color.  Juicy blackberry nose with tones of smoke and mineral/graphite.  Vibrant flavors of spiced berries, plum, wild herbs and smoke.  Clean and smooth with a lovely racy finish.

A sheltered valley at 900 feet above sea level in the region of Corbieres. Clay limestone soils within a natural amphitheatre of slopes surrounded by pine trees and garrigue.  This specific micro-region has an unusual quality. The soils contain Aeolian sand, giving the wines more smoothness and an expressive fruit character.

2017 is the first certified organic vintage.

Deeply colored with sweet plum fruit and a delightful mineral overlay on the nose. A light medium bodied wine with supple juicy fruit.

GOING ORGANIC

Putting it simply, we return to traditional viticultural practices abandoned decades ago. The elimination of synthesised chemical interventions is merely the start of our journey. Our credo is based on our close relationship with the land and the know-how of our forefathers. 

Being organic means more time spent in the vineyard: labouring the soil under the vines, and nurturing organic matter; planting cover crops which can then be ploughed into the soils to add nutrients; pruning carefully for healthy, strong vinestocks which protect themselves and produce good fruit. 

Modern science also has important contributions to organic methods. As well as equipment, for example, we use sexual confusion diffusers to combat several species of vine moths. In the winery, we work with naturally-occurring indigenous yeasts and keep sulphur levels low.

We have a small olive grove, and occasional beehives. Maintaining the ancient walls and tracks, we see a rich biodiversity flourishing around the vines. The woodland ‘garrigue' teams with life. As well as insects, it offers aromatic herbs, wild garlic and asparagus in springtime.

CHRISTOPHER & SEBASTIEN

In Corbières, a meeting of two men, a few words about the Carignan grape, and in the twinkling of an eye a friendship is born.

Christopher, with a hidden smile. Burgundian by his mother, English by his father, he discovered wine, with his wife Louise, in London. The Languedoc captured his imagination and his heart. In 2007 an ancient vineyard, mostly planted with old Carignan vines became available, and Christopher discovered his alter-ego winemaker.

Sébastien, a beret-bearing colossus with his feet firmly planted in the vines. Sébastien speaks the language of terroir. Growing up on his family vineyard in the Dordogne, he learned everything by the age of 9. Formal winemaking studies and positions at Bordeaux chateaux preceded his arrival in the Languedoc. Mastering the grape varieties of the Languedoc within a few harvests, he fell in love with the Carignan, his Cathar mistress.

Carignan: half of our vineyard is dedicated to plantations of Carignan aged from 30 to 101 years. At once noble and peasant, typical and atypical, Carignan has been rediscovered in recent years by a new generation of winemakers.

Emblematic of the Languedoc, she is generous with her yields in her youth, then measured and complex with age. She is at home here, with her love of the hot sun of this wild Cathar country. She thrives in poor soils, yet with her strength she stands up to the battering of the seven winds without trellising. She withstands summer drought and still find enough drops to fill her precious grapes.

For Christopher Spencer, lady Carignan was a gustatory love affair. For winemaker Sébastien Bonneaud, a wild animal to be tamed. Pruned carefully in the gobelet form in winter, her grapes offer many possibilities to the skilled winemaker. Sébastien has tried them all. He finds Carignan as expressive of her terroir as Pinot Noir, and was one of the first in 2003 to make a 100% Carignan wine.

He eschews carbonic maceration; traditional fermentation gives better results. The young grapes are great in blends. The oldest and best grapes are destemmed by hand and vinified in barrel for a notable and ageworthy Languedoc. It took Sebastien 10 years to perfect a rosé from Carignan, the “R de Spencer”. The unoaked Old Vine Carignan is the signature wine for Chateau Spencer La Pujade. Pure Carignan, pure Languedoc.

THE VINEYARD : LA PUJADE

“La Pujade”, meaning “hillside”, takes its sense from Occitan. Protective hills encircle our vines, nestling in their sheltered hollow. The local varieties find their place – Carignan first, then Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. A parcel of Roussanne lies a little to the north, touching the garrigue at its limits, and another of Vermentino and Roussanne to the east. 55 hectares in total, of which 45 are planted, the rest harbouring pines, aromatic plants and wildlife of all kinds. 

Clay soils of deep red earth are lightened by aeolian sand, brought to the valley by winds from ancient volcanos. The mix brings a graceful elegance to the wines, a freshness and intense pure fruit.

THE WINERY

The 19th Century winery extends deep into the hillside behind. Entering by the big red portal, you see a cathedral of shiny stainless steel vats reaching into the recesses of the cave. Half underground, the natural air-conditioning and stable temperatures make an ideal environment for natural yeast fermentations and wine maturation.

The winery has been extensively renovated with new temperature-controlled stainless steel vats, a lab and barrel store. Four ancient stone vats build into the back of the winery have been renovated and relined. They make excellent fermentation and storage vessels for our Carignan.

Our Organic certification dates from the 2018 harvest.