Domaine Augustin

When I am asked to introduce Domaine Augustin, I tend to let the sleeping bear express itself in all these men who spend a lot of time alone, outside. I often answer: “It’s me… Augustin”. Actually, it’s more than me.
It was first of all my father, who gave me the love of this profession, here in Banyuls, this old-fashioned vineyard, not to say downright ancient, so old is it.
It is also the family estate, in which I worked during my holidays as a child, first in the preparation of orders, in the cool cellar and then, when the strength came to me, in the vineyard, in the midday sun, with my father’s workers.
I still remember my first day of picking at Col Perdiguer, a hard time.

However, it is this profession that I have chosen to launch myself into life.
I stayed 3 years on the family estate, 3 years spent with these workers who are the first to have taught me the gestures that allow me to prune, graft, hoe, plow, tie…

It’s also during these years that, for the first time, I was taught to work in the cellar: pressing, pumping over, pigeoning, topping, and all the other gestures that lead to grapes giving wine.

After these 3 years, I felt the need to give myself time to look elsewhere before coming back. I wanted to know why I would come back.
It was at Jean Thévenet’s house in Quintaine, that for the first time I worked outside the family cocoon, outside the clan. The uprooting was gentle, Jean welcomed me as a son, and we maintain a very special friendship.

The continuation of my companionship took place at Frédéric Mugnier’s house in Chambolle. I stayed there for 2 years during which I did a diploma in viticulture and oenology in Beaune.

I never told him, but a few weeks after arriving, one evening during the harvest, before dinner, Frédéric served us a 2001 Musigny in the middle of the office that served as a dining room during the harvest. That evening, among the pickers at the table, the atmosphere was very good. These are those that are only found after busy days when everyone feels that they have given their best. This wine, that night, was not noticed. I tasted and promised myself to pay particular attention to the work that was being done here. Because it is a set of small things, small efforts, sometimes repeated for several generations, that make it possible to make a difference.
Rich in these experiences in Burgundy, a land of predilection where the land has the place of the king, I began a return to the country by going to work in the Corbières with Pierre Borie, in Boutenac. I learned about the tenacity of those who have something to prove and the strength of a smile.

So I came back home in February 2014, and I wanted to write the sequel from this little story by creating the Domaine Augustin.
As you will have understood, Domaine Augustin is not just me, but all these stories. And some others that I will gladly tell you about on occasion, around a bottle.