Domaine Gayda plays Figure(s) Libre(s)
With Figure Libre, Domaine Gayda has been asserting its pioneering spirit since 2004. The fruit of experimentation by winemaker Vincent Chansault, this range of four IGP “vins d’auteurs” allows itself complete freedom in the choice of grape varieties and blends offered. A completely freestyle UFO, now caught up by success.
100% Chenin Blanc, 100% Cabernet Franc. Look for the mistake in Merlot country, in the heart of the Malepère appellation in the west of the Aude department. On the label, the two single-vineyard wines in the Figure Libre range show a man from behind animating the material (in this case, a flight of vine leaves) as if by magic, like an orchestra conductor or the Harry Potter magician. It’s this creative and slightly wizardly spirit of the “vigneron-auteur” profession that Domaine Gayda, an estate created ex-nihilo by a trio of partners from Cape Town and the Loire Valley: Tim Ford, Anthony Record and winemaker Vincent Chansault. Three men who believe in the potential of Languedoc terroirs, and who assert their choices and the paths they have taken to reveal and bring out the best in their wines.
Two off-piste single varietals
“When we arrived in 2003 from South Africa at Brugairolles, southwest of Carcassonne, we were struck by the terroir’s oceanic influences. We were starting from scratch, so we decided to plant the northern grape varieties Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc around the estate,” says Vincent Chansault, whose origins in the Loire Valley naturally led him to these varieties, which are particularly well-suited to the Malepère terroir, the most westerly of the Languedoc AOCs. Red card in the land of Merlot, the red grape variety that accounts for half of the appellation’s wines. These two AB-certified parcel wines are marketed outside the AOC, in IGP Pays d’Oc, with biodynamic trials underway.
Freestyle blending wines
Far from stopping at these two single-varietal wines, Domaine Gayda soon extended the trial to blend wines, designated on the wine label as Freestyle because they assert themselves outside the classic framework of appellations. “Because the diversity of terroirs and climates in this region fascinated me, I wanted, with a certain greed for discovery, to experiment with the potential of this patchwork by buying grapes as a négociant-vinificateur,” explains Vincent Chansault. This is the spirit behind the range’s two blended wines: a red (Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache and Carignan) and a white (Grenache, Marsanne, Roussanne and Macabeu) that bring unexpected terroirs together in the bottle, daring to make unusual blends. I believe in appellations,” says Vincent Chansault, “but what I claim above all is that I belong to a terroir, to a region, with the freedom to combine seaside grapes, which ripen quickly, with vines from higher altitudes, which ripen later, thus combining ripeness and fruit, while striking a balance with freshness.
Completely freestyle, the 4 wines in the Figure Libre range, “wines outside any conventional framework”, have found their audience. 30,000 bottles of white and 80,000 bottles of red are sold each year.
“Figure libre is four wines, two single-varietal and two blends. It’s a state of mind, the desire to assert the creativity of the winemaker-author and that of the wine merchant-winemaker by proposing other paths, crossroads that transcend the rules of appellations, in the choice of grape varieties or blends”, Vincent Chansault, winemaker at Domaine Gayda.
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