Clos Des Fées
Clos Des Fées

Clos Des Fées

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Founded in 1997 in Vingrau by Hervé Bizeul, a former Best Young Sommelier of France turned winemaker, the Domaine du Clos des Fées has risen in a single generation to the rank of a Roussillon reference. Its thirty hectares of old vines, spread across around a hundred plots over seven terroirs in the Pyrénées-Orientales, yield Côtes du Roussillon and IGP Côtes Catalanes wines of rare density and freshness, driven by grenache, syrah, carignan and mourvèdre.

In terms of great years, the 2016 vintage ranks among the estate's recent highlights and the 2011 confirms its consistency at the highest level, while the 2020 wine illustrates the brilliance of the most recent harvests. Its micro-cuvée La Petite Sibérie, born from a plot of old grenache vines, remains one of the most sought-after wines in the Languedoc-Roussillon.

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The FAQ

What sets Domaine du Clos des Fées apart in Roussillon?

Founded by Hervé Bizeul, a former sommelier turned winemaker, the estate cultivates a mosaic of old vines spread across seven terroirs. This pursuit of precision and its independence from passing trends have made it one of the estates that restored Roussillon's place among the great French wine regions.

Which Clos des Fées cuvée should you start with?

Les Sorcières, in red or white, offers the most accessible way to discover the estate's style. To move up the range, the Vieilles Vignes and Le Clos des Fées cuvées express older vines; La Petite Sibérie, meanwhile, remains the cult micro-cuvée reserved for the finest occasions.

How long can wines from Clos des Fées be kept?

The entry-level cuvées are best enjoyed young or after a few years, while the most ambitious wines, such as Le Clos des Fées and La Petite Sibérie, evolve over ten to twenty years. They are best served decanted, at around 16-17 °C.

Hervé Bizeul, from sommelier to the creation of Clos des Fées

The story of Clos des Fées is first and foremost that of an extraordinary journey. Born in Perpignan, Hervé Bizeul was crowned Best Young Sommelier of France at the age of twenty-one, before running a wine bar in Paris, then becoming a wine journalist and writer. It was in the course of his travels that he discovered, in the late 1990s, the limestone cirque of Vingrau, a village in the Pyrénées-Orientales surrounded by garrigue and swept by the tramontane wind, where very old vines seem never to have been young.

In 1997, he settled with his wife Claudine on barely two hectares, without a cellar or equipment. His first wine, in 1998, was vinified at a friend's property under artisanal conditions, yet was noticed from the moment it was released. The rise was swift: within a few vintages, the domaine expanded, its wines were exported worldwide and Hervé Bizeul became one of the names that restored Roussillon's credibility among lovers of great wines.

A mosaic of Roussillon terroirs, from Vingrau to Opoul

The singularity of Clos des Fées lies first in the fragmentation of its vineyard. Rather than a single contiguous estate, the domaine brings together around thirty hectares spread across some one hundred plots, over seven sectors of the Pyrénées-Orientales: Vingrau, Tautavel, Maury, Calce, Lesquerde, Opoul and Espira-de-l'Agly. Each plot brings its own signature, and this diversity is, according to the winemaker himself, one of the keys to the quality of his wines.

The soils range from the clay-limestone of the Vingrau cirque to the schist of Maury, passing through pebble terraces, windswept limestone plateaux and some more granitic soils — a geological variety said to be found only in Alsace or Madagascar. The Mediterranean climate, with its hot days and cool nights, ensures a slow ripening: the grapes mature while retaining the acidity that gives the wines their freshness, tension and mineral profile.

Old vines and the "three Vs" method at Clos des Fées

To get the best out of this mosaic, Hervé Bizeul sums up his approach in "three Vs": Vieux, Village, Vingrau. The idea is to work only with old vines — an average age of fifty years, some over a hundred — from specific villages around his anchor point. At this age, the vines produce little and naturally concentrate their grapes, which is the very foundation of the domaine's old-vine cuvées.

Vineyard management follows a reasoned approach: ploughing, synthetic products reduced to a strict minimum, and preservation of the garrigue, olive trees and woodland surrounding the vines to encourage biodiversity. Harvests are entirely by hand. In the cellar, vinification seeks to preserve the expression of each terroir through gentle extraction, with a proportion of new oak progressively reduced over successive vintages to give more room to fruit and minerality.

The style of Clos des Fées wines and their ageing potential

The domaine's reds are blended principally from grenache, syrah, carignan and mourvèdre. They are recognisable by their aromas of ripe dark fruit, liquorice, gentle spices and garrigue, lifted depending on the vintage by notes of cocoa or smoke, carried by silky tannins and a fresh finish. The whites, built around grenache blanc, play on the brilliance of the fruit and saline tension. At the table, these wines pair equally well with grilled and roasted meats, lamb and game as with aged cheeses.

In terms of ageing, the entry-level cuvées are best enjoyed in their youth, while the most ambitious wines evolve over ten to twenty years in the cellar. International critical recognition has accompanied the domaine since its beginnings, regularly saluting the consistency of its wines — a credibility built over time rather than on a passing trend.

La Petite Sibérie and the domaine's iconic cuvées

The range traces a true hierarchy of reading. Les Sorcières, in both red and white, forms the domaine's gourmand and immediately approachable entry point. The Vieilles Vignes and Le Clos des Fées cuvées — the latter from the oldest vines, between seventy and one hundred years old — form its heart, while single-plot cuvées such as Un Faune avec son Fifre or De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté push the logic of place even further.

At the summit reigns La Petite Sibérie. This micro-cuvée was born almost by accident in 2001: with no tank available at the end of the harvest, Hervé Bizeul vinified a small plot of old grenache vines in makeshift containers — a plot planted on soil very rich in iron and lashed by an icy wind for nearly two hundred days a year, hence the name. The wine, with its unexpected texture and length, has established itself as one of the most sought-after in Roussillon.

Clos des Fées and the renewal of the Roussillon vineyard

In the Languedoc-Roussillon vineyard, Clos des Fées occupies a place apart: that of the domaine which, through its ambition and visibility, has helped change the way an entire region — long associated with négociant wines — is perceived. In Calce, it shares certain terroirs with Domaine Gauby, another leading figure of contemporary Roussillon. More broadly, it enters into dialogue with the great names of neighbouring Languedoc, from Domaine de Peyre Rose to Domaine de la Grange des Pères, which have also lifted the South to the highest level. Together, these domaines tell the story of the qualitative renewal of the great wine-producing South of France, of which Clos des Fées remains one of the standard-bearers.

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