Domaine du Pegau    

Domaine du Pegau

Domaine du Pégau is an estate bottler of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The Domaine is owned by Paul Féraud and his daughter Laurence. It is universally considered among the top handful of estates in Chateauneuf, thus among the world’s greatest wines. From extensive personal experience, I agree completely.

“Cult Wine”

I do not like the word ‘cult’. To me, it conjures up disturbing images of brainwashing and fanatical religions. I’m not sure how it ever began to be applied to wines and I wish it would stop.

Pégau is the only wine sold by HPS that is regularly described as a ‘cult’ wine. (although Revue du Vin de France does use the French word, ‘culte’, to describe the wines of Domaine Jacqueson in Rully). I never hear Lafite or Romanée-Conti described that way. The owners of Pégau are not happy with the term, but there it is. Let’s just say that Pégau makes great wine and that demand exceeds supply.

Paul & Laurence Féraud

Great wine starts with vineyards and vineyards start with people. Paul & Laurence Féraud clearly display dedication far beyond that of most winegrowers and are also clearly more talented than most, but otherwise they are regular folks by any definition.

Paul Féraud was one of five children. He obviously felt somewhat neglected during childhood because he decided to have only one child. His daughter Laurence was lavished with attention – which is not the same thing as being spoiled. Laurence started helping in the vineyard and cellar before she was 10 years old. Paul had infinite patience in answering questions and showing her how things should be done. He knew from the beginning that his daughter was both exceptionally bright and exceptionally energetic. He understood that this rare combination could mean something special for the Féraud family and their wines.

Paul is a kindly, happy, canny, deep country French farmer. He has been working in the family’s vineyards for over half a century. I was at Pégau during the disastrous harvest of 2002, when torrential rains took lives, ruined wine quality and even washed young vineyards out of hillsides. All through the town, the talk was of storms never before seen, yet Paul calmly told me that this was exactly like the 1963 vintage and that they should be able to make a light-bodied but true example of Pégau. That is exactly what Paul, Laurence and her husband Mark did.

Laurence

Laurence is a force of nature, balancing family obligations, viticultural, and business commitments with an unreal grace. She has a work ethic that would exhaust most entrepreneurs. Her mother is an awesome cook and Laurence learned at her knee. It is a humbling pleasure to be invited to dinner at Laurence’s home. This incredibly busy wine celebrity will carry on a conversation, care for her children, and select and open wine, while preparing a dinner that will be better than most French restaurants could hope to provide. In fairness, I have to point out that her husband, Mark Fincham, pitches in and helps with everything, chores seamlessly divided in the happy dance of every good marriage.

Domaine du Pégau Chateauneuf-du-Pape

There is a secret to wine quality that I can reveal with no risk. The secret is that everything is done exactly as Paul Feraud’s grandfather did it 100 years ago. The vines are old, averaging 50+ years of age. They are head pruned (free-standing) like most other Chateauneuf vines. However most vines in Chateauneuf will have 4 - 7 arms. Pégau’s have 3. Yields in Chateauneuf are traditionally low – less than 3 tons per acre. Pegau’s are always less than 2 tons per acre.

Laurence Encore

Laurence took a French Baccalaureate (the equivalent of a U.S. two year Associate degree), in viticulture, then decided to work in wine marketing before returning to school for further viticultural studies. She did not do particularly well selling wine in Paris, came home poor and went to work for her father strictly as a vineyard worker. She describes this as “a very good school”. She never did go back to the University.

Many winegrowers’ kids hang around their parents and pick up a lot, but throughout her childhood Laurence was a remarkable sponge for everything Paul could teach her. After two solid years of hard labor in the vineyards, Paul added cellar work to her schedule. It came to her as naturally as breathing. Paul and Laurence legally incorporated ‘Domaine du Pegau’ in 1986 and started looking for markets. When Laurence formally joined her father in the Domaine, only 10% of the wine was bottled, the rest being sold in bulk to the top Rhone negociants.

Laurence found a way to present the wines to Michel Béttane of ‘Revue du Vin de France’ who was suitably impressed and mentioned this superb “new” estate (with old vines and a continuous 100 year history) to Robert Parker. I got wind of it and have never looked back. It took less than five years to achieve total Estate Bottling – and in those years, the press wasn’t as laudatory as it is today.

The Wines

Fermentation takes place in 100 year old concrete fermenters. The wine is then transferred to large old oak foudres that hold over 1000 gallons – about 500 cases of wine. The wine ages in these foudres for 22 months and then is bottled directly, without fining or filtering.

The cellar technique described above is responsible for Pegau’s basic wine, ‘Cuvée Reservée’. The confusing name stems from the bad old days when 90% of the production was sold in bulk and the small quantity left was ‘reserved’ for bottling by the family. Production today is 5500 cases – a lot for a “cult” wine but not much to share among all of the world’s wine lovers.

In very good vintages a percentage of the wine is set aside for different cellar treatment. Instead of 2 years in foudre it spends 3 - 4 years in old 200 gallon barrels the size and shape of Port pipes. The barrels are topped regularly – several times a week – to insure that the wine does not oxidize or age prematurely. This wine is Cuvée Laurence. It is basically the same wine as ‘Cuvée Reservée’, but perhaps the foudre selected is a little better and the extra time in smaller oak means that the wine is far more ready to drink on release.

Next, in top vintages a small selection of wine from the best, oldest parcel in Chateauneuf’s ‘Le Crau’ district is set aside for barrel ageing in 60 gallon barrels of partly new, partly several year old French oak. This wine is bottled at about 2 1/2 years. It is called ‘Cuvée da Capo’. In 1995 and again in 1997 a barrel or two were made in this style and named ‘Cuvee Maxim’ and ‘Cuvee Justine’ after Laurence’s children in their birth years.