Viognier, Domaine du Bosc 2023

Situated in the Hérault department in southern France’s Languedoc region, Domaine du Bosc is not far from the beautiful seaside resort Cap d’Agde. It is a winemaking region steeped in history: Agde has actually been home to vines since the 5th century BC. This long winemaking history has been attributed to Agde’s port, which meant that, unlike those in many areas of France, growers were able to export their wines to various Mediterranean countries from very early on.

Their proximity to the sea provides the vines with a wonderful Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, sometimes wet autumns and winters. This part of the Languedoc sits on ancient lava flows that are very positive for the wines, allowing them to retain a good deal of freshness.

The Besinet family were vine growers for many generations, originally owning vineyards in Montpellier. The late Pierre Besinet had trained as a chemical engineer and for many years worked in the north of France, far away from any vines. He returned on the death of his father, but very quickly decided to sell up and start somewhere else.

Pierre became attracted to the volcanic soils around Agde and that is where he settled, creating Domaine du Bosc. At the time, the vineyard was planted with all manner of red grapes, and geared up for mass production; however, Pierre had the vision to start from scratch and planted other varieties. Starting with cabernet sauvignon and merlot, he was among the first to plant Bordeaux grapes, and then also planted grenache blanc. In time, he would add many more varieties, and to this day is still experimenting: recent additions have included petit verdot and petit manseng.

Pierre made his reputation on fresh, clean-tasting, fruity wines. His background helped him make some quite radical changes, especially in the cellar, which was one of the first in the Languedoc to be thermo-regulated. He was also one of the first to adopt night time harvesting, especially for white grapes as a way of preserving fruit flavours and freshness.

Winemaker Jean-Etienne Cros is a good friend of The Wine Society and used to manage his family’s estate in Gaillac. The day to day running of the business is in the hands of Pierre’s daughter Dominique.