Chateau Lestignac Moelleux Les Brumes 2013
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Château Lestignac is managed by Camille & Mathias Marquet, a young couple who inherited the family farm in 2008. The farm originally included 17 hectares of vinifera vines, but the Marquets pared the vineyard down to the best sites and introduced a diverse garden and livestock into the mix to develop a true polyculture to complement their conscientious, organic farming style.
2009 was their first vintage under the banner of Lestignac and the couple began to introduce biodynamic farming in 2011. In addition to the vineyard, the farm is home to over 200 fruit trees, 80 chickens, and 20 sheep.
Half of the vineyards are on a gentle north-facing slope of limestone with the other half on a plateau of blue clay. The Marquets rely on horses to work all parcels instead of tractors or other machines and increasingly use biodynamic preparations—including nettle, comfrey, yarrow and wicker—to eliminate the use of sulfur and copper treatments over time.
The majority of the vines are 40- to 60-years old, with selective replanting. The new vines are goblet pruned, which is unique in Bergerac, to provide more protection from the sun and foster a higher, natural acidity to ensure a fresher style of wine.
Fermentation is always spontaneous with indigenous yeasts and nothing else is added with the exception of a touch of sulfites at bottling. In 2017 the Marquets started a negoce brand, “Hors Les Murs,” and a project is in the works to start making ciders from the apples and pears grown on the property.
Sémillon has the power to create wines with considerable structure, depth and length that will improve for several decades. It is the perfect partner to the vivdly aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. Sémillon especially shines in the Bordeaux region of Sauternes, which produces some of the world’s greatest sweet wines. Somm Secret—Sémillon was so common in South Africa in the 1820s, covering 93% of the country’s vineyard area, it was simply referred to as Wyndruif, or “wine grape.”
A small category representing the wines that either fall outside of appellation lines or don’t subscribe to the law and traditions set forth by the French government within certain classified appellations, “Vin De France” is a catch-all that includes some of the most basic French wines as well as those of superior quality. The category includes large production, value-driven wines. It also includes some that were made with a great deal of creativity, diligence and talent by those who desire to make wine outside of governmental restrictions. These used to be called Vin de Table (table wine) but were renamed to compete with other European countries' wines of similar quality.