Domaine Bernard & Robert Plageoles: 09 & 10

Heirloom Gaillac: The Road Less Travelled

“The Plageoles put Gaillac – and its local grapes – on the map.”  Jacqueline Friedrich, The Wines Of France.

“The wines of this unique Gaillac domaine… are a challenge; nothing quite like them is produced anywhere else in France… In many ways [the Plageoles wines] are untypical of Gaillac – yet Gaillac is an AOC with so many personalities that they seem perversely typical, too.” Andrew Jefford, The New France.

After a night of wine revelry with Gilles Lapalus of Sutton Grange in his home town of Cluny (Burgundy), Rob’s twitter updates fell silent on the 10th of July. It wasn’t until 18 days later that he resurfaced with the following tweet: “Getting off on Gaillac. Great wines from the Plageoles lads made with indigenous varieties most of us have never heard of. Definitely bringing these in because a: they're delicious and great value b: we’ve got no Gaillac and c: that will make two wines with 'nature' on the label!” Somewhere in those 18 days Rob had gone to ground, ventured off-piste and re surfaced amongst the hidden vineyards of South West France.

Viticultural Gaillac is a horseshoe arc of land high above the river Tarn in South West France. Though relatively close to Bordeaux, few people outside of South Western France know this region’s wines. It was the Phoenicians, then the Romans who first planted vines in the Gaillac region northeast of Toulouse. It predates Bordeaux, and like Cahors, Madiran and other wine regions in South Western France, it might have achieved the same renown had it not been for a quirk of historical fate. If only those shifty Bordelaise on the Garonne River had not first expropriated their wine (by blending it with their own) and later taxed it to death before it went through their port. Then Phylloxera vastatrix came to town, which pretty much delivered the coup de grâce to Gaillac.
Today’s Gaillac is many things to many people. To the wine... learn more