We travelled south from Faugères to Corbières in early March this year, leaving the moody hills of one end of the Languedoc, for the garrigue-covered slopes of the other.
The drive from Fitou to Villeneuve, having left the relative comfort of the A9 Autoway, is a pretty dramatic affair, a winding road bordered by dense forests and sheer rock faces of schist.
The little hired-hybrid that had served us well this far into the trip, was starting to feel less suitable for the journey with each hill we cut through. We're here to visit Domaine Balansa; Celine drops us a pin over WhatsApp to her location in the vines, where she has been busy pruning. Sensing that we might not be arriving in the most sensible car she texts back - "actually wait in Durban! We will collect you"
Shortly after, we're in convoy, careening up a hill that has less in common with a road every metre we progress.
Just as Tom's face shifts from the precise shade of 'this is exciting' to 'I'm concerned we won't get our deposit back', they pull over to the side of the track. Alexandre hops out: "leave your car" he suggests, with a finality that sounds like we'd be better off if we left it there forever. "It will not survive!"
Into the back of their Defender we go, sliding around on benches as the truck rattles over loose tracks like we're on safari. Vine safari?
Vine safari with Celine and Alexandre
120 year old Carignan for Versicolore
Corbières is home to some of the oldest vines in France, and Celine & Alexandre begin by showing us theirs. We pull through a little forested opening into a clearing pocked with gnarled stumps that look like they've spent the last century learning how to hold on for dear life in the wind.
We're in the parcel they pick for Versicolore, 120 year old Carignan grown over schist, planted by Celine's Great Grandfather.
Celine & Alexandre farm 14 hectares biodynamically, on parcels scattered through the hillside that have been in Celine's family for several generations. Until she returned home in 2013, the Peyre family sold their fruit to the local winemaking co-op.
Celine had vision for these old vines though, and the pair have been doing vinification themselves since. Yields are incredibly low across their parcels, concentration of fruit is quite something. It would be a risk in areas more prone to disease, but they're blessed by the tramontane wind.
"We're lucky, it's so windy here that we rarely have to spray, disease is pretty rare!"
Hills undulate into the distance, a bright speck on the horizon is picked out as the Mediterranean. It's the two doing battle that seems to bestow the place with its special something, the mediterranean influence butting heads against the winds travelling down from the north.
Looking towards the Mediterranean
Here in the Versicolore parcel we have a good view across the horizon at 280m altitude, but our next stop is their highest vineyard.
Bouncing further into the hills; at 400m we reach a sprawling vineyard co-planted with 100 year old Carignan, Grenache Noir, Syrah and a little Lledoner Pelut that they pick for Bel Soula, and La Vinhota.
There's no topsoil here, just pure rock. But the schist scattered across the surface is soft and loose, a mix of brown, purple and grey. It's a softness one recognises in the wines, supple and textural. Old roots hunting deep between the layers for their water source delivers a chiselled minerality.
Their neighbour and friend, the lauded Maxime Magnon, had picked out the Hautes Corbières over ten years ago as the place he wanted to call his own. A native Burgundian not born into a winemaking family (and with no access to vines back home), Celine & Alex credit him with helping them learn everything they needed to get started. It's not an easy place to work, up on the moonscape of schist, but it has a rugged beauty, and these old vines are worth it.
Breaking schist, nearby Syrah needing a haircut
Clouds are gathering, so we head down the hill. There's a small vineyard between two peaks (one of the peaks: Peche Rozies, gives the wine from this parcel it's name). It's surrounded by garrigue beginning to burst into life. There's some actual soil here, with less surface rock between the two mountains, clay over schist and a little limestone.
Celine is excited to show us the bat boxes they've been installing down here, helping welcome the pollinators back to the area. Around the vines, things are blooming: wild asparagus nudging its way through the surface, almond trees coming into flower. With spring just beginning to crack the pokerface of winter, you get a sense of how alive this place will seem come summer.
Peche Rozies in the upper left distance
We make our way to the car to climb up to the Coume de Maliès vineyard ('the high place' in Occitan dialect) , as misty rain starts to blow in across the valley. Celine points out in the distance an incredibly steep vineyard on loose, flaky schist that is picked for Can Del Rey - a centenarian co-planting of Carignan, Grenache and Syrah.
At Coume de Maliès , the rain is really gathering, but we stay just long enough to inspect the soils, a little clay over limestone and schist, and admire the view across the valley, between veils of rain. On the steep slopes of the Hautes Corbières, Celine and Alex are making the most of their treasure-trove of old vines over an unbelievable terroir.
Coume de Maliès, just prior to pruning
It helps make sense of the Balansa wines to understand them as the parcellaire cuvees they're intended as; a unique snapshot of each vineyard, the whole collection painting an impressionist picture of Celine & Alex's parcel-patchwork in the hills.
Retreating from the rain, spot the contrast between Celine & Alex’s parcel (green, alive, right) and their neighbours (dead, left)
Back in the cellar, sheltering from rain, the vision for Balansa becomes clearer still. The wines share a through-line as each parcel is processed, the fermenting must of one cuvee acts as a levain for the next. Picked in order, Aragon sparks Coume de Maliès, which in turn sparks Peche de Rozies and so on.
Coume de Maliès and Pech Rozies, resting in tank
Work is gentle and precise in the cellar, macerations short, and nothing ever fined or filtered. They use a token dose of sulphur at bottling, just one gram. Tasting the sulphur-free cuvees direct from tank and barrel, we ask if they even need bother with and at all, their winemaking is so clean regardless: "We're still learning, for us it's an insurance against losing everything. We cannot afford to take the risk!" With time they will find their confidence.
Wines are aged in a combination of vessels, from concrete tanks, to old barrels and bespoke terracotta amphora, Celine's painting from the Versicolore parcel watching over them. Tasting through everything in the cellar, we're particularly excited to release the 2021's that have started to come together - a rare vintage in the Hautes-Corbières with bags of rain and cooler temperatures over the summer, the wines are brimming with energy, freshness and acidity.
Given the name, Celine & Alex are in a constant search of balance, trying to produce wines of substance whilst retaining tension, aiming to reflect the extremes their old vines have battled over the last 100 years in the hills.
Theirs is a new expression of the old Hautes-Corbières: giving the wines the respect they deserve, hoping to keep out of the way in the process. They believe that they're working on one of the greatest terroirs in the world, and are doing their best to let it shine.
By vinifying simply, farming with utmost respect for the vines and the region, and possessing granular attention to detail (every aspect of the build in the cellar has been carefully considered to flow neatly, the cleanliness alone speaks volumes of their diligence) , Celine & Alex are achieving that rare thing: writing a new story for a family with a history in the hills here over the past couple centuries.
Just as we leave the cellar to head inside for pizza and to admire their son's impressive Lego skills, Celine pours us a taste of a sapid, golden-brown, viscous liquid from a demijohn at the cellar door. "This is the wine my grandfather made. It's all they used to make here."
It's a Vin Doux Naturel, aged oxidatively for who-knows-how-long, and whilst it clearly tastes wildly different to all the wines we've tasted with Celine & Alex, suddenly it feels like we have a complete understanding of everything we've seen today. A glimpse into the past, whilst they work on the future.
We're pleased to release the following wines from Celine & Alex:
2021 - Aragon - Muscat Petits Grains
From a steep, hilly parcel of Muscat on schist and limestone. Two days as whole-bunches in the cold room, before pressing to stainless steel for fermentation. 6 months ageing in amphora. Unfined and unfiltered.
2020 - Coume de Maliès - Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Vermentino, Carignan Blanc, Carignan Gris, Terre
From a 250m parcel on schist, limestone and a little clay. Three days as whole-bunches in the cold room, fermented in stainless steel, aged 6 months in concrete. Unfined and unfiltered.
2021 - Coume de Maliès - Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Vermentino, Carignan Blanc, Carignan Gris, Terret
As above, but the 2021 was aged in stainless steel tank for 6 months instead.
2021 - Pech de Rozies - Grenache Noir, Syrah
From the bat-box vineyard beneath the 'Pech de Rozies' mountain, pressed directly after two days in the cold room, fermented in stainless steel. 4/5ths aged in tank, with 1/6th in demi-muid, both for 6 months.
2021 - La Vinhota - LLedoner Pelut, Grenache Noir
From the 400m vineyard over pure schists, with one day in the cold room, five days carbonic maceration, aged for 6 months with 2/3 in tank and 1/3 in barrels.
2020 - Bel Soula - Carignan, Grenache Noir, Syrah
Also from the vineyard at 400m, Bel Soula has a 10 day carbonic maceration, and six months in concrete before bottling.
2019 - Can del Rey - Carignan, Grenache Noir, Syrah
From 100+ year old vines, the Carignan and Grenache have a 17 day carbonic maceration, the Syrah de-stemmed and macerated separately. Aged for a year in barrels, before blending and bottling.
2019 - Versicolore - Carignan
From the oldest parcel of 120 year old Carignan, the 2019 had a 25 day carbonic maceration, before a year ageing in old barrels.
Wisely, didn’t tackle the schist-tracks of the Hautes Corbières in this one.