Domaine Vaquer
R
oussillon Wines in the Aspres subregion, located at the foot and under the benefits of the rain shadow effect of the Canigou peak.
The 17 hectares of the estate Vaquer are located 200 meters above sea level, below the place called "Pla del Rey", site of the historic battle known as Boulou in 1794. There we can still find historical traces such as cannonballs or bayonet.
People often talk about Canigou peak, but the region benefits above all from an exceptional panoramic view of the Albères, this ultimate massif of the Pyrenees, between the Perthus pass and the sea, with its shades of bluish gray at the end of the day.
F
rédérique, the domaine Vaquer winemaker, tells us about her love for these Aspres hills covered with vines and garrigue and crisscrossed with small ravines which are so many very green groves. As she originates from Burgundy, she was not born here, but feels as if she is at home.
This is where she chose to live, to start a family.
O
f course, there is the wind, the Tramontane. Being outside, so heckled by the wind, you are concentrating on your job, it refocuses you, and the imagination takes over.
Today Frederique's spirit has tamed the wind and soothes it, allowing her to fully express her expertise and experience in crafting wines.
The estate possesses a century of history, and it all started in 1912 with Bernard's Vaquer great-grandfather. He owned a "tartars and lees" business, he bought the estate for his daughter who then married Fernand Vaquer.
F
ernand 1er was a famous rugby player.
Champion of France with USAP, the Perpignan club, in 1921 as a player and again four times between 1925 and 1955 as a manager. He was nicknamed "the marshal".
From 1947, he replanted the vineyard with his son. Currently, the Carignan of the "Exception" and "Expression" cuvées still comes from it...
Born in 1929, his son, "Fernand II" started working on the property at the age of 17, and he has not forgotten his grandfather's first lesson: "The cellar should be as clean as the kitchen!"
In 1968, he was among the very first Roussillon winegrowers to bottle his red.
“We picked the grapes between 12 and 13°,” says Fernand. I blended the Carignan and Grenache in the vat, we pressed a month later. The wine remained in the vat for two years, never seeing the wood. I made the wine my way ”.
Concerned about the long aging potential of his wines, he came up with the idea of storing the bottles on his wife's family farm in the mountains, in Cerdanya.
Today there remain a few "collection" bottles of these old wines, and they taste surprisingly well, reflecting both the longevity and the expertise of the family maker.
B
efore succeeding his father, Bernard, Frédérique's husband, came to study oenology in Dijon. As Frederique originates from Burgundy, it was there that they met in 1985.
At the time, the label carried the mention of VDQS "Roussillon dels Aspres", the AOC Côtes-du-Roussillon did not yet exist...
But when the Côtes-du-Roussillon Les Aspres appellation appeared in 2003, Frederique took that for a nod: one of the emblematic cuvées of the estate – the Exception – now belongs to this extraordinary appellation.
Discover Frederique's wines at the Roussillon Wines Embassy.
