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At first, the Le Bihans ran a service business for farmers, doing heavy agricultural work with big machinery. In 1997, they took over Jean-Mary’s father’s estate, which was mainly grains and grazing fields, but with 5 HA of vines. Jean-Mary and Catherine knew nothing about viticulture and winemaking and had to ask their neighbors for the most basic of help.

After three vintages of making wines they did not like, and sold in bulk, they were ready to sort their best grapes and pick them by hand, and they made their first six barrels of red and two of white. From then on, they changed all their viticultural methods, notably by pruning short, making the treillissage higher so that more foliage would be exposed to the sun, getting rid of superfluous bunches to keep yields low, and using exclusively organic fertilizers. They also started planting new vines at a much higher density than is common in the area, 5600 vines per hectare rather than 3000 vines, and selected low-yielding root-stocks.

They built a winery, bought vinification equipment and by the fall of 2000, they were able to pick their entire crop by hand. The average yields that year were 50HL/HA, and have since gone down to 30HL/HA in 2001 and 20HL/HA in 2002. Their vineyard acreage has grown to 16HA, and they still have other crops like soy, lentils, wheat, sunflowers, fava beans and prunes, all grown organically. Now they are phasing out the machinery business to concentrate on their vines and wines. Catherine also breeds Arabian horses, with a stable of 25.

The red cuvée Vieillefont is made from 20 to 30 year-old vines of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. The vines grow on a soil of boulbènes, a local word describing siliceous clay, alluvial soils that are slow to warm up in the spring and are soft enough to allow the root system to go very deep.

The grapes are totally destemmed, left to macerate before fermentation, and vinified in small vats, by varietals and plots. Only pigeages (breaking down the cap of grapes skins above the juice) are used, to obtain soft extraction (i.e. avoid over extraction of color and tannins, which can make for harshness in the wine) and the maceration/alcoholic fermentation takes 4 to 6 weeks. Aging is done for 12 to 20 months in oak barrels, with a very low proportion of new wood. No or low doses of sulphur are added, and no racking is done all through the aging. Every batch is kept separate and the blending is done at the very end by barrel selection.

Their white wine, named Pérette et les Noisetiers (Pérette and the hazelnut bushes), comes from Sauvignon blanc vines planted between 1929 and 1939 on a clay and limestone soil. That plot also has vines of Sémillon and Muscadelle that are not used in this cuvée. The grapes are pressed immediately, and fermentations go very slowly (nearly a year in vintage 2001) without the addition of yeast or enzymes. Some of the juice is barrel-fermented and aged, the rest is made in stainless-steel vats. The wine goes through its secondary fermentation (malolactic) and 2001 was aged for 18 months without any racking or addition of sulphur. The cuvée was not fined but lightly filtered.

The estate’s second red wine, plainly named “2”, is a lighter wine, made with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and only 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vines are around 25 years old, planted on a similar soil of boulbènes. The grapes are vinified the same way as for cuvée Vieillefont, but remontages are used as well as pigeages (i.e. the juice is circulated from bottom to top once the cap is broken). The aging in oak barrels is limited to 9 months, with no racking or sulfiting.

We are delighted to have started with this exciting new producer. In the future, we hope to see special bottlings made only with Malbec, which we think has a great future in this area.

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