Clos des Nines

Clos des Nines grew from Isabelle Mangeart’s late-1990s move to the Languedoc, where a career change led her to study viticulture and oenology in Montpellier and train with local growers. Her first pruning season began at the end of 2002; the estate’s name honours the family’s daughters. The property is a single ten-hectare holding on the Collines de la Moure between Montpellier and Sète, with eight hectares of vines and two of olive trees surrounded by garrigue and dry-stone walls.

Fossil oyster shells and limestone pebbles lie in the vineyard soils, with clay-limestone ground for red varieties and better-drained sandy loam for whites. Certified-organic farming relies on compost, restrained cultivation and no synthetic treatments; fruit is picked by hand, preferably in the cool morning, and sorted in the vineyard when needed.