New Arrivals from Domaine Fontedicto

A pioneer of biodynamics, organics, natural winemaking, and horse ploughing, Bernard Bellahsen has been a figurehead for respectful farming since beginning his project west of Béziers in 1977.

Bernard and Cécile Bellahsen initially set out to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle closer to the earth. For many years, they focused on farming grapes to produce fruit juice rather than wine, which they sold at local markets. Any ploughing was done exclusively by horse, with no chemicals from the beginning.

It wasn’t until they decided to move to the village of Caux that they purchased close to 5 hectares of vines with the view to moving towards winemaking, an attempt to increase income to support their young and growing family. Over the years, many of these old vines have sadly died, and today, they only farm the remaining 1 hectares of low-yielding Carignan and Syrah vines.

Some years ago, after many years of importing his wines to the UK market, we lost contact with Bernard, mainly due to a shift in his energy towards his baking, pottery, and beekeeping. But we are ecstatic to be able to announce that for the second year running we are able to release a selection of wines from the domaine to the UK market. The production today is so limited that it is only nearly enough to satisfy local lovers of his wines, who can pick these up at the market where Bernard and Cécile sell their spectacular bread from their own farmed and milled grains.

As expected, quantities are low, and we have only had the luxury of uploading a very limited number to our online store.