The territory of Faugères yields an astonishing variety of still red, white, and rosé wines, plus an aged brandy called Fine de Faugères. But the region is best known for its earthy, savory red blends, principally of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Carignan.
Toward the end of my weeklong tour of Languedoc in June 2024, our large group of journalists gathered with an even larger group of Faugères producers for a grand plein-air picnic for seventy-five. Thirty meters of dining table had been set under the trees, laid with white linen and decorated with field flowers and vines. Other tables offered assortments of charcuterie, cheeses, roasted vegetables, and casseroles, and nearby, whole suckling pigs and chickens rotated over open coals. A jazz duo, guitar and clarinet, serenaded the scene, their doodling drifting on the faint June breeze. Of course there were wines: eighty-five white, rosé, and red bottles to taste, plus three aged eaux de vie.
After lunch, Nathalie Caumette coaxed us from the table to the shade of a large mulberry tree. Standing before a dry stone wall of schist, with a rolling vineyard before her, she gave brief remarks about Faugères terroir.
Nathalie is owner, with husband François, of Domaine de l’Ancienne Mercerie, a sixteen hectare property producing certified organic red, white, and pink wines. The estate is named in honor of François’s grandmother Jeanne, a seamstress who ran a haberdashery (mercerie), who with her husband, Jean (a teetotaler), improbably moved to Autignac in the 1940s to make wine. Since 2011, Nathalie has been chair of AOP Faugères, acting as champion and spokesperson for the territory.
English was our group’s lingua franca, and Nathalie is less than fluent, so she recruited Corinne Woodland to translate. Corinne is English, responsible for export, sales, and marketing at Domaine du Météore, another organic Faugères producer. Her partner is Simon Frech, Météore’s winemaker. Frech is from a winemaking family in Bordeaux and had previously worked in New Zealand, Argentina, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Météore is a newer project, founded in 2014 by two wine lovers from London, Paul Jenkins and Paul Jarman, who named it for the crater on the property left by a meteor strike ten thousand years ago.
The picnic was a chance to sample what this soil can yield, to mingle with producers and enjoy their hospitality. It was also, naturally, a chance for them to mingle with one another. During the busy season (is there a slow season in farming?), wine growers have scant opportunities to gather en masse, sample each other’s newest bottles, and kvetch about the weather, both meteorological and political. I think they like these gatherings better than we journalists, if that is even possible.
All Posts iN this series:
Introduction | Charlotte de Béarn | Isabelle Champart | Noémie Vidil | Céleste Renault | Corinne Woodland & Nathalie Caumette
© 2025 Meg Maker. Original painting made with iPad Pro 12.9″ fifth generation, Apple Pencil second generation, and Procreate v. 5. Please contact me to discuss licensing or commissions. All travel and accommodations were provided by CIVL.
