Winery Overview
The Bergasse brothers, Arnaud and Nicolas, can surely only be described as the pin-up boys of the Languedoc-Roussillon. Effortlessly gorgeous, charming, articulate, and armed with 100-megawatt smiles, they have taken over their 400-year-old family estate from their father with the enthusiasm of boisterous teenagers. Which is not to say that they arent serious about their wine. Their 40 ha of vines are planted to Carignan, Grenache Noir, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Alicante Bouschet, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Grenache Blanc and Viognier. The Alicante Bouschet vines were planted in 1939, and are quite. Their property itself is a magical tapestry of St-Chinian, with the visible remains of a Roman farmhouse not a stones throw from the château itself, an old once-well-known botanical garden a little scraggly and neglected, but still home to some very rare varieties by the side of the driveway, soaring views across St-Chinian, three different soil types, and a collection of cellars, barns, tanks and equipment that could have come from both a museum and yesterdays agricultural catalogue. This perfectly comfortable juxtaposition of old and new is Viranel, and in many St-Chinian too.