Mas Bruguière
Mas Bruguière

Mas Bruguière

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Mas Bruguière is one of the founding addresses of the red wines of Pic Saint-Loup. A family property for seven generations in Valflaunès, farmed under organic agriculture by Xavier Bruguière, this twelve-hectare estate produces red wines from the Languedoc of a freshness and precision that have elevated the AOP Pic Saint-Loup among the great appellations of southern France. Its age-worthy red wines, led by La Grenadière, made from old Syrah vines on limestone, illustrate what Languedoc-Roussillon produces at its most elegant and most distinctive. Among the most sought-after vintages: Mas Bruguière 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2022

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Mas Bruguière: seven generations of winegrowers in Valflaunès

Few estates in Languedoc-Roussillon can claim a history as long and unbroken as that of Mas Bruguière. The family has been settled in the valley of Valflaunès since the late 18th century, and the vine has been cultivated there without interruption for more than one hundred and fifty years — surviving phylloxera, the frosts of 1956 and the overproduction crises with the resilience of those who have never considered doing anything else.

The decisive turning point in the history of the wines of Mas Bruguière came in 1974, when Guilhem Bruguière left the local cooperative to vinify his own grapes. At the time, the Languedoc was still synonymous with ordinary table wine, and few growers were betting on quality. Guilhem took the opposite path: he uprooted the high-yielding grape varieties, replanted noble varieties suited to the terroir of Pic Saint-Loup — Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre — and in 1986 produced his first estate-bottled wine. This was the founding act of an independent wine estate from the Languedoc that would go on to help define the identity of an entire appellation.

His son Xavier Bruguière took over in 1999 following a formative period at Château La Liquière in Faugères — a neighbouring schist appellation that taught him the importance of soil and gentle extraction. On returning to Valflaunès, he set about converting to organic viticulture, introduced gravity-fed vat filling to preserve the aromas, replaced new barriques with large foudres, and reduced sulphite levels to a minimum.

Pic Saint-Loup, the coolest appellation in the Languedoc

To understand the style of the red wines of Mas Bruguière, one must understand what makes the AOP Pic Saint-Loup unique within the Languedoc vineyard. With its peak at 658 metres above sea level and its thirteen communes spread across 25–35 kilometres north of Montpellier, it is the most northerly, the highest and the coolest appellation in the Languedoc. Nights there are cool even at the height of summer, the diurnal temperature variation preserves the natural acidity of the grapes, and the winds channelled through the valleys naturally limit disease — enabling organic producers such as Mas Bruguière to work with a minimum of inputs.

The estate's vineyard benefits from an even more sheltered microclimate: positioned in the valley of Valflaunès, framed by the Pic Saint-Loup to the north and the limestone cliff of the Hortus to the south, it is protected from excessive heat while enjoying optimal sunshine. It is this double protection that explains the consistency and stylistic regularity of Mas Bruguière vintages from one year to the next — including in difficult years such as 2017 or 2020, when other Languedoc appellations suffered from the heat.

The cuvées of Mas Bruguière: fruit, freshness and precision

The range of Mas Bruguière is built around three flagship cuvées that cover the essential expressions of the Valflaunès terroir. In red, La Grenadière is the estate's emblematic age-worthy wine: made from old Syrah vines planted in the 1980s on the finest limestone plots, aged for eighteen months in large oak foudres, it develops over time notes of black fruit, black olive, pepper and garrigue herbs, with a finish of remarkable length. It is the quintessential red wine for ageing from Pic Saint-Loup, one that gains considerably from being cellared for five to ten years.

The cuvée L'Arbouse offers a more immediate and more accessible profile: a fruity, floral, generous red wine from the Languedoc, built on fine tannins that allow it to be enjoyed from as early as two to three years after the harvest. A blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, it represents the most direct expression of the freshness of Pic Saint-Loup.

The white wine Les Mûriers is the estate's most precious curiosity. In an appellation dominated by reds, Xavier Bruguière produces a white wine from Vermentino, Marsanne and Roussanne — three grape varieties that, on the limestone soils of Valflaunès and with ageing in foudres, yield an age-worthy white from the Languedoc of floral complexity and richness that is extremely rare for the appellation. The 2018 and 2019 vintages are now at their peak.

Mas Bruguière in the hierarchy of Pic Saint-Loup

In the hierarchy of the great estates of Pic Saint-Loup, Mas Bruguière occupies a unique position: that of the founding estate, which took part in the creation of the Appellation Syndicate as early as the 1950s, long before Pic Saint-Loup obtained its AOC recognition in 2016. This longevity gives the wines a historical legitimacy that more recent estates cannot claim.

Alongside Clos Marie — a neighbour in Lauret and the absolute benchmark of the appellation for its prestige cuvées Simon and Les Glorieuses — and Mas Foulaquier, Mas Bruguière represents the most sincere and most accessible face of the AOP Pic Saint-Loup: organic wines from the Languedoc that seek not to impress, but to faithfully express an exceptional terroir. For those wishing to explore the wines of Languedoc-Roussillon beyond the best-known appellations, Mas Bruguière is an ideal entry point — much as Mas Jullien is for the Terrasses du Larzac or Domaine Gauby is for the Roussillon.

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