Mas Gabinèle, exceptional Faugères wines : a family story, the love of a job well done, a quest for excellence. In Occitan unà gabinelà refers to a wine-maker's hut in the vineyards. Thierry Rodriguez, grandson of a winemaker, bought his first plots of vines in 1997 in the heart of the Faugères appellation, already renowned for its magnificent schistous soils. The estate progressively expanded to its current 23 hectares, carrying out in-depth renovation work on every new parcel. Demanding, thorough and a perfectionist, Thierry Rodriguez manages the vineyard with great care, professionalism, and a passionate drive to improve every year. The aim is to ensure beautiful, healthy and optimally ripe berries - the key to making the very finest wines. Nothing revolutionary here, simply the application of good farming sense and pratices which respect the environment and biodiversity. Quality in a wine begins in the vine. You can't get good produce without good grapes and you can't grow good grapes without respecting nature. Mas Gabinèle has been rewarded with HVE (High Environmental Value) certification in 2016. The terroir is comprised of ochre, grey or blue sandstone and schist soils. This is a high quality but demanding terroir which naturally produces low yields. The landscape is undulating, and the vines are surrounded by natural hedgerows, woods and holm oak forests, cork oaks and garrigue (arbustus, cade, cistus, heather, broom, thyme). The grape varieties are representative of tha Faugères appallation: Syrah, Grenache, Lledoner Pelut, Carignan and Mourvèdre, plus a few very old Grenache Gris vines planted in 1958 ! Harvesting is by hand and the grapes are sorted before being transported whole to the winery. The harvest date of each parcel is crucial, the annual dilemna is to identify the balance between optimal maturity and reasonable risk. The modern and efficient winery was built in 2013. The vinification cellar is comprised of 20 cylindrical stainless-steel tanks with heat exchangers, representing a total capacity of 1330 hectolitres. All the equipment has been carfully selected to ensure maximum preservation of the quality of the harvest: stalk separator, pneumatic press, reversible iced water unit (automatic temperature control). Maceration time is relatively long, at between 15 and 30 days depending on the vintage. Vinification is carried out gently to avoid excessive extraction. The objective is to produce expressive, fruity wines with supple and silky-smooth tannins which can nevertheless age well. From the end of fermentation, the wines are transferred to French oak vats for maturing periods of 12 to 18 months, as required for each different vintage. From a surface area of 23 hectares, wine production is around 600 hectlitres, representing 80,000 standard bottles.