Welcome to Domaine Bois de Devès.
It was in 2020, during the pandemic, that Nicholas Smith took his big leap. After four intence years in the cooperatives and vineyards of the Loire Valley, the former rock drummer and Plumpton graduate from the south coast of England, finally choose Fronton, an appellation in the South with beneficial oceanic influences in times of climate change, to make his mark on the world of wine . Since then, he has been cultivating the 10 hectares of old vines accompanied by oak wood from Domaine Bois de Devès with sustainable practices and great sensitivity to the terroirs.
The Smith family are writing a new chapter for Château Devès
Read the article from La Dépêche here (In French)…
Agroforestry
Agroforestry is the practice of growing trees alongside crops. The Devès vineyard comes with the responsiblity of acting as a custodian of the Devès forest. The interplay between the forest and the vines is a vital part of the unique character of the wines. Trees produce a mesoclimate, acting as windbreaks, changing humidity, drawing water and sharing deep subsoil nutrients, all bound by the fungal mycorrhiza which act as a "wood wide web" for the exchange of nutrients and even information, in the form of plant hormones, between trees and perhaps even between the vines and the forest.
« Tasting Nicholas’ wines outside his farmhouse was so much fun, with the chickens at our feet free-ranging around expectantly. The Domaine wines are very good, and it’s great to discover these full-flavoured, approachable, and easy-to-drink wines. They are outstanding value, too! »
— Little Wandering Wren travel blog
Read on if you are looking for a hidden gem and love interesting wines which combine tradition with modernity from an up-and-coming French appellation.
