Navarre Estate

Thierry Navarre is the third of a generation of winegrowers in Roquebrun, in the Saint-Chinian appellation area, he got his start alongside his father. At the same time he trained in an agricultural school in Pézenas then in Béziers where he discovered the beginnings of the harvesting machine as well as the techniques of conventional agriculture. Fortunately for us, all these practices do not convince him, quite the contrary! His estate covers 12 ha of vines planted on terraces on brown shale terroirs in Roquebrun in the heart of the Haut Languedoc regional natural park. The vines are surrounded by a circle of small mountains covered with arbutus trees, holm oaks, heather, cistus, thyme and rosemary... Thierry is passionate, an artisan winemaker. Thanks, in part, to his meeting with Professor Daniel Domergue, a specialist in the ampelography of Languedoc and its history, who will reinforce his idea of ​​maintaining the diversity of indigenous grape varieties and their importance. On his estate he works Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, Syrah, Œillade, Terret, Merlot, Muscat, Clairette, Grenache gris and Ribeyrenc. Ribeyrenc, in fact, an old, forgotten Languedoc grape variety, which he will multiply and replant on 3 schist hillsides facing South-East. A real conservative work that he will also carry out on other grape varieties such as Oeillade... He will also be passionate about all cultural practices that respect the plant, he refuses to use any chemical product, will make and use his own composts and work with your own homemade plant preparations, infusions and nettle manure. Here all the work is done manually, from plowing to hoeing the soil and of course the harvest. The vinifications are obviously natural, without any filtration and without sulfur whenever possible.