Chateau Faiteau
Vendange

Family winegrowing business

SINCE 1920, 4TH GENERATION

Château Faiteau is located in the Languedoc, in the heart of the Minervois. The Minervois is one of the largest AOC appellations in the Languedoc, stretching from Narbonne to the ramparts of Carcassonne. It covers nearly 15,000 hectares of vines, 5,000 of which are used to produce AOC wines.

There are several different zones within the Minervois terroir, each zone has its own particularity.
Château Faiteau is located on the Petit Causse, which is one of the earliest and warmest areas of the Minervois. The wines here are often concentrated, warm and complex, characterised by aromas of candied fruit.

Recognised as one of the oldest vineyards in Europe, the Minervois terroir is an important part of Cathar history with the ancient city of Minerve giving it its name.


Château Faiteau is located in La Livinière, the birthplace of the appellation :

CRU LA LIVINIÈRE.

We benefit from an exceptional terroir. Situated on the vast amphitheatre made up of terraces, soubergues and the 1st coasts.

Our vines are clinging to the foothills of the Montagne Noire, a real player in the semi-arid Mediterranean climate. Facing south, towards the Mediterranean Sea, which can be seen on the horizon.

A specific climate due to its location.

Our vineyard is subject to the Cers and the Marin, which are the dominant winds. There are between 250 and 300 days of wind per year and on average we have 315 days of sunshine per year.
Yesterday

In 2000, Jean Michel renovated an old cellar acquired by his parents, which results of the first bottles of Château Faiteau, with a unique personality and a selection of terroir and grape varieties.

In 2014, creation of new buildings: our reception, storage and maturing facilities adjoining the wine-making cellar.

In 2016, elimination of all pesticides and insecticides in our vineyards

In 2018, we officially committed ourselves to organic farming.
Today

We have 16 hectares of vines, which we work entirely with natural methods, mechanical techniques and organic alternatives adapted to our terroir, preserving biodiversity.

Since 2021, we have been officially recognised in organic farming.

We have reclaimed abandoned hillsides (following the re-parcelling) and replanted them according to traditional methods, which today offer us these parcels of high quality and with interesting characteristics, which we are looking for.

Most of the grape harvest is still done by hand.

Our bottling are made at the property. The wine is then matured in bottle for a few months before arriving on your table.
TOMORROW

We will be renewing part of the vineyard for the most ageing plots. Always on the move, replanting is an integral part of the evolution of the estate with of current climate issues.

We will continue our work of quality and patrimonial through respectful viticulture of humans and nature.

We will continue to develop our unique and exceptional terroir. To be a winegrower in a landscape garden, our landscape mosaic, to make our wines according to our identity and perpetuate in bottles, the Reflection of Nature and the Mosaic of Senses.
JEAN MICHEL ARNAUD - Winegrower

Some of the vines on the estate belonged to my great grandparents, my grandparents and my parents.

These vines are the beginning of the story.

For the oldest ones, they are counting their 70th year, worked with different methods according to the generations to continue today to work as close as possible to nature and respectful of human.

It is thanks to these family lands and my attachment to this exceptional territory that I was able to create the cellar and the estate of today : Château Faiteau.

Stéphanie Arnaud - winegrower

I love wine! Probably because I grew up in the middle of the vineyards, the woods that surrounded my family home in the Médoc, it was my playground. At the Sunday meals prepared by the women and which never ended, around good bottles of wine which were very often the subject of great discussions.

My attachment, my respect, my need for nature comes from there. Wild I was, wild I am.

To the deafening noise of the world, I prefer the serene company of the soothing silence of the vines and the cellar: my office.

The assembly of our meeting with Jean Michel, in 1996, gave us two beautiful children Floriane and Gaston, and an estate that we are building day after day, thrilling, full of twists and turns, joys and doubts... we go through a whole mosaic of sensations over the years of work, but with an enchanting finality: to offer you in our bottles, and beyond our local borders: our reflection of nature and our mosaic of meaning.

Floriane arnaud - winegrower's daughter

Wine in the baby bottle ? even so not !

My history with wine began with a drop in my large glass of water during family meals where my grandparents were maybe worried about the importance I would give it.

I was just 2 years old when my father started the business, so you could say that I was immersed in it from a very young age. I spent Wednesday afternoons there, days during the holidays... I will admit that it was not my favourite pastime. I preferred to watch the film of La Livinière, where my great-grandmother is shown preparing and explaining how to make faggots.

It was through these days that I understood what a family story is: having a common, intergenerational conviction, being proud of our land, of what we create, convinced of the work we do, of his quality, the transmission and sharing knowledge.

These are the memories I have today. The share in family, a passion and a pride that is passed on.

"The process and the definition of the rules began in the 1980s thanks to a handful of winegrowers and winemakers, and led to the recognition of the first communal appellation area in the Languedoc in February 1999.

THE CRU LA LIVINIÈRE WAS BORN.

The first Roman settlers planted vines on this territory, and in 1069, "Lavineira", which means "place planted with vines", was already mentioned as the name of the village. The following years confirmed the exceptional potential of the La Livinière terroir, dominated by limestone, sandstone, sandstone marl, schist and quaternary terraces.

The representatives of the forty cellars that make up the La Livinière cru have got into the habit of meeting regularly to taste their respective wines and to elect the vintages that seem to them, at the moment, the most emblematic of the cru. These bottles form what they call the Livinage, the annual selection of the wines of the appellation. And this is the challenge taken up each year, by juries of journalists, sommeliers and winemakers, through a selection of vintages which will be, for a year, the ambassadors of the cru.

The result of the Livinage 2021, presents the cuvée Gaston 2017 as one of the ambassadors of the cru. 

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