Château Del Ranq

Limestone, garrigue and two pairs of hands

North of Montpellier, where the garrigue climbs the limestone cliffs of the Pic Saint-Loup, sits the village of Claret. Laure Barthélémy and Sébastien Freychet work thirteen hectares of vines here.

They started in 2018 with three hectares of their own. Two years later they took over the ten hectares of the family property — vines that have been in the family for generations and have always been worked with the greatest respect for the soil and the plant. The estate has been certified organic since 2009.

In the vineyard

Their starting point is almost banal in its simplicity: every parcel is different, and that difference is the only thing that matters. Observe, understand, and only then intervene — or not. They farm biodynamically, not as a label but as a way of reading the vineyard.

The soils are limestone and clay. In places the bedrock surfaces: layers of limestone and marl, with garrigue all around. That limestone is what you find in the glass — the freshness and salinity that make their reds feel so unlike the south.

In the cellar

Everything hand-harvested, in crates. Every parcel vinified separately. Fermentation on native yeasts. Ageing and bottling happen at the estate, by their own hands.

Nothing added to the wine, beyond a minimal dose of SO₂ if it’s genuinely needed.

The wines

The range runs from dangerously drinkable to serious cellaring. Le Poucèt — the name means water well — is exactly as thirst-quenching as that sounds. Rédarès and Château Del Ranq show Pic Saint-Loup the way the appellation rarely shows itself: light, mineral and taut rather than broad and warm.

Blanc de Noir is white wine from black grapes, a year on lees in barrel. La Cadène is barrel-fermented Sauvignon, something you’ll find almost nowhere else in the Languedoc. La Vertu is a Mourvèdre pét-nat at 11%, and L’Orbite a saignée rosé of Grenache and Cinsault.

And then there’s Le Ribou, the flagship: garrigue, eucalyptus and violet over a fresh, juicy frame. A wine to put away.

Several cuvées are also available in magnum, and the Château Del Ranq even in 300 cl.