Corbières Blanc Cuvée Prestige, Château Ollieux-Romanis 2020

The Bories family have been making wine in Corbières for generations, since they built their own winery and cellar in 1896 using original stones from the estate’s quarry. In the 1980s, Jacqueline and François Bories completely rejuvenated the family property, buying up parcels of vines and restructuring the vineyards, wisely refusing to pull up the older vines as so many other producers were doing. Now Ollieux Romanis owns some of the oldest vines in the region.

Jacqueline and François laid excellent foundations for their son, Pierre Bories, who began working with them in 2001 and has maintained the Chateau’s excellent reputation ever since.

The domaine is located at the heart of Boutenac, one of the 11 sub-zones of Corbières and historically better known for olive groves and grazing sheep. In 2005 it became the only Corbières sub-region with its own ‘cru’ status, so it is deemed by most to be the best of the bunch. The domaine’s 150 hectares of vineyards are particularly well positioned in a south-south-easterly aspect which gives shelter from the north wind and is a beautiful sun-trap.

Impressively, more than a third of their vines are carignan aged between 50 and over 100 years old, but they also grow syrah, grenache noir, mourvèdre, roussanne and marsanne, among other varieties. Soil types vary greatly too – from hard clay with rolled pebbles, to red mediterranean soil – but all are excellent at keeping vines hydrated in the scorching summer heat.

The family practises sustainable viticulture, although they haven’t yet achieved formal certification. Weed-killer was discontinued several years ago, and chemical fertilisers have been replaced by compost made almost entirely on the vineyard.

The harvest takes place in September, with different parcels of grapes being picked together according to their quality. A small team of pickers harvests about 80% of the grapes by hand, as their ancestors did, carrying the grapes in baskets on their back. They are then transported to the winery by tractor in small boxes, where they are sorted and then most of the grapes undergo carbonic maceration.

Although the family pay careful attention to their long-held traditions, they are also dedicated to improving their wines by using the best modern technology: for instance, they use a pneumatic press which is gentler to the grapes and extracts better-quality juice.