We discovered Mas Sibert during our 2015 summer holiday in Languedoc, having been given a bottle of their wine by a friend who lives in the region. Simon Bertschinger and his wife Sara Frémine have built a small cellar under their house in the beautiful hilltop village of Fos, located in the hinterland of the Languedoc region, a few kilometers east of Faugères. The vineyards (consisting of just 2 hectares of vines) lie just to the north of Pézenas, with plots on three different types of soil; clay and limestone on river terraces, some sandy soil by the river bank and some clay with large stones.
The planting consists of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Syrah and Sangiovese - an unusual mix of varieties, but Simon feels that these varieties (and the particular clones he has planted) are ideally suited to the region's climate and terroir. Wishing to respect nature, they practice biodynamic viticulture, working, harvesting and bottling according to the phases of the moon. Any treatments used in the vineyard are based on local herbs and plants, the grapes are hand-harvested in small crates and they vinify using only the indigenous yeasts which occur naturally on the grapes. Bottling is by gravity, with additional SO2 used only if necessary for the stabilization of wines, with no fining or filtration.
