Domaine Plageoles Braucol
Regular price $40.00
Winemaker: Robert Plageoles
Appellation: Gaillac, France
Grape Varieties: Braucol
Vinification Method: grapes from one vineyard are destemmed and go through traditional fermentation with remontages while the other part from another plot goes through carbonic fermentation with whole bunches. Native yeast only, 8 to 10 days. After alcoholic fermentation, the two wines are blended together. Aged in tank for 6 months, bottled withou filtration, with a small dose of sulfur.
The wines of Gaillac as a whole are on the map today as wines of quality due to the hard work and adventurous spirit of the Plageoles family. It all started with Robert Plageoles, who took great pride in bringing back the lost indigenous varieties of the area. He researched and replanted over a dozen varieties (7 in the Mauzac family alone) indigenous to Gaillac that had all but vanished. Robert did painstaking work, often going in to the forest to find wild vines growing, and going to seed banks to resurrect these grapes. Robert’s son Bernard continued this work, and now his sons Florent and Romain have taken up the cause of natural wines in Gaillac.
The terroir in Gaillac is made up of clay, limestone, sand and silex soils. Gaillac receives more sunshine than Bordeaux and is graced by a cool maritime climate. Between the historic family vineyard of Très Cantous and the Roucou-Cantemerle vineyard totaling 20-hectares, they farm Mauzac Vert, Mauzac Noir, Ondenc, Duras, Musscadelle, and Prunelart. To drink the wines from Plageoles is to experience the fruit and terroir of living history.
The Plageoles are one of the oldest winemaking families in the AOC, and they are thoroughly invested in retaining the traditions and quality for the AOC that had been often overlooked, that however, have now been receiving well-deserved praise.
Check out Levi Dalton’s interview with Florent Plageoles on episode 255 of the I’ll Drink to that Podcast!
-Jenny and François Selections