On the northern slope of the Alaric mountain in the Aude, a winemaker from the village and his California-born partner have built a human-sized organic farm whose name means "hill of the swallow."
Backstory
Colline de l'Hirondelle is the project of Didier Ferrier, who comes from a winemaking family in Douzens near Carcassonne, and Jennifer Buck, a Berkeley native who studied French literature. The couple made their first wines in 2008 and began selling them in 2010, having converted part of an old barn into a winery. They started with 4 hectares from Didier's father, received another 2.5 hectares as a wedding gift, and planted a further 1.5 hectares.
The Region
The estate lies in the village of Douzens, in the Corbieres of Languedoc, between Narbonne and Carcassonne. Although the vineyards fall within the Corbieres AOP, the couple often bottles outside the appellation, in part because they work with rare varieties such as Chenancon that the appellation does not permit.
Vineyards and Farming
Farming has been organic from the very start, and the property is a declared bird refuge. A treasured one-acre plot, the Joupatiere, was planted at the end of the nineteenth century and escaped phylloxera. It is a field blend of thirteen identified varieties, including Carignan, Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre, Terret, and old curiosities like Olivette blanche and Chasselas dore.
Winemaking
Reds are hand-harvested and fermented with indigenous yeasts. The natural Grenache-Mourvedre cuvee is co-fermented and bottled with no added sulfites. Wines rest in the cool stone coach house and are released when they are ready to drink.
The Wines
The range includes the A la Volee Languedoc bottling alongside cuvees such as Cocolico and L'Oiseau, all rooted in the old vines and biodiversity of the Alaric hillside.
