Mas Bruguière
Mas Bruguière

Mas Bruguière

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Mas Bruguière is one of the founding addresses of the red wines of Pic Saint-Loup. A family property for seven generations in Valflaunès, run in organic farming by Xavier Bruguière, this twelve-hectare estate produces red wines from the Languedoc of a freshness and precision that have elevated the AOP Pic Saint-Loup among the great appellations of southern France. Its age-worthy red wines, led by La Grenadière, made from old Syrah vines on limestone, illustrate what Languedoc-Roussillon produces at its most elegant and singular. Among the most sought-after vintages: Mas Bruguière 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2022

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Mas Bruguière: seven generations of winemakers in Valflaunès

Few estates in Languedoc-Roussillon can boast a history as long and continuous as that of Mas Bruguière. The family has been settled in the valley of Valflaunès since the late eighteenth century, and vines have been cultivated there without interruption for more than one hundred and fifty years — weathering the phylloxera crisis, the frosts of 1956 and overproduction crises with the resilience of those who never considered doing anything else.

The decisive turning point in the history of Mas Bruguière's wines came in 1974, when Guilhem Bruguière left the local cooperative to vinify his own grapes. At the time, the Languedoc was still synonymous with ordinary table wine, and few growers were betting on quality. Guilhem took the opposite path: he uprooted the high-yielding grape varieties, replanted noble varieties suited to the terroir of Pic Saint-Loup — Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre — and in 1986 produced his first estate-bottled wine. This was the birth of an independent Languedoc wine estate that would go on to help define the identity of an entire appellation.

His son Xavier Bruguière took over in 1999 after a formative experience at Château La Liquière in Faugères — a neighbouring schist appellation that taught him the importance of soil and gentle extraction. Back in Valflaunès, he began the conversion to organic viticulture, introduced gravity-fed vatting to preserve the aromas, replaced new barrels with large oak vats, and reduced sulphites to a minimum.

Pic Saint-Loup, the coolest appellation in the Languedoc

To understand the style of Mas Bruguière's red wines, one must understand what makes the AOP Pic Saint-Loup unique within the Languedoc vineyard. With its peak at 658 metres altitude and its thirteen communes stretching 25–35 kilometres north of Montpellier, it is the most northerly, the highest and the coolest appellation in the Languedoc. Nights are cool even in the height of summer, the diurnal temperature range preserves the natural acidity of the grapes, and winds channelled through the valleys naturally limit disease — allowing organic producers like Mas Bruguière to work with a minimum of inputs.

The estate's vineyard benefits from an even more sheltered microclimate: positioned in the valley of Valflaunès, framed by the Pic Saint-Loup to the north and the limestone cliff of the Hortus to the south, it is protected from excessive heat while enjoying optimal sunshine. It is this double protection that explains the consistency and stylistic regularity of Mas Bruguière's vintages from one year to the next — including in difficult years such as 2017 or 2020, when other Languedoc appellations suffered from the heat.

The cuvées of Mas Bruguière: fruit, freshness and precision

The range of Mas Bruguière revolves around three flagship cuvées that cover the essential expressions of the Valflaunès terroir. In red, La Grenadière is the estate's emblematic age-worthy wine: made from old Syrah vines planted in the 1980s on the finest limestone plots and aged eighteen months in large oak vats, it develops over time notes of black fruits, black olive, pepper and garrigue herbs, with a remarkably long finish. It is the quintessential age-worthy red wine from Pic Saint-Loup, one that gains considerably from being cellared for five to ten years.

The cuvée L'Arbouse offers a more immediate and accessible profile: a fruity, floral, generous red wine from the Languedoc, with fine tannins that allow it to be enjoyed as early as two to three years after the harvest. A blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, it represents the most direct expression of the freshness of Pic Saint-Loup.

The white wine Les Mûriers is the estate's most precious curiosity. In an appellation dominated by reds, Xavier Bruguière produces a white wine made from Vermentino, Marsanne and Roussanne — three varieties that, on the limestone soils of Valflaunès and with ageing in large oak vats, yield an age-worthy white Languedoc of a floral complexity and richness that is very rare for the appellation. The 2018 and 2019 vintages are now at their peak.

Mas Bruguière in the hierarchy of Pic Saint-Loup

In the hierarchy of the great estates of Pic Saint-Loup, Mas Bruguière occupies a singular position: that of the founding estate, which participated in the creation of the appellation's syndicate as early as the 1950s, long before Pic Saint-Loup obtained its AOC recognition in 2016. This longevity gives the wines a historical legitimacy that more recent estates cannot claim.

Alongside Clos Marie — a neighbour in Lauret and the absolute reference of the appellation for its prestige cuvées Simon and Les Glorieuses — and Mas Foulaquier, Mas Bruguière represents the most sincere and accessible face of the AOP Pic Saint-Loup: organic wines from the Languedoc that do not seek to impress, but to faithfully express an exceptional terroir. For those wishing to explore the wines of Languedoc-Roussillon beyond the best-known appellations, Mas Bruguière is an ideal entry point — just as Mas Jullien is for the Terrasses du Larzac or Domaine Gauby is for the Roussillon.

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