Rémi Poujol

‘Le Temps fait tout’: Time does it all/Weather makes everything (‘temps’ means both weather and time in French).
Rémi likes this dual meaning for his vineyard ; accepting the climate and adapt to the evolution.

The Mas Costefere 5.5 ha are located in Adissan, a small village in the Hérault. Rémi Poujol explains that the terroir comprises four main interdependent elements:
The soil; hills named villafranchian terraces made up of pebbles, mainly granites and quartz, which contain a lot of silica. These very stony soils allow good drainage during heavy rains and store the water thanks to the underlying clay. Rémi Poujol works there with his horse – a tractor weighs 3,000 kg whereas a horse weighs 700 kg, for a much more precise job. Soils are less compacted and more aerated where oxygen penetrates more easily to promote microbial life in a living soil. The horse also contributes to the compost.
The climate; temperate is Mediterranean characterized by a summer drought of four months. However, the cold season receives almost all the rains with a maximum often in Autumn. The altitude cooler nights amplified by the capture of northern fresh winds (tramontane, mistral). The marine influence is also very important because of its regulating effect on the hot summer temperatures.
The vine; the Languedoc varieties. Carignan is a late grape and needs high temperatures to ripen well. Grenache faithfully transcribes the influence of the soil, the climate and the work of the winemaker. Syrah gives very powerful aromas.
The winemaker; Rémi Poujol has to adapt to the different elements to bring out the quintessence, according to his conception of wine. He makes correction via working the soils or the vines.

His red wine is the result of a fermentation more or less long (from 6 to 45 days, depending on the years) and the aging in vats will continue over a period, also variable, from 12 to 18 months, and without adding any product or sulfur. The choice to ferment the wine in vat is a conscious one as Rémi does not want it to be masked by the aromas from wood. The wine will be bottled without being fined or filtered and the possible presence of deposits is natural.