The Story:

“First, they laughed at us; then, they were jealous of us; and now they give us respect.”

Thus, Fred and Catherine describing what it is to have been the first domaine in the Côtes de Thongue to produce entirely natural wines. In their case, while belief in biodiversity and the environment is a part of it, it starts with their desire to produce the best wines they can, and this led them to conclude that the best way to deliver the best flavours was to do this with absolutely minimal chemical intervention.

For Fred, there’s an inherited aspect too. His grandfather, a vigneron, was ahead of his time in seeking to avoid chemical intervention and Fred learned much from him. His own father was uninterested in wine, but Fred has taken up the torch one generation later and La Villa Sepia is the result.

Having started as a ‘vin natur’ domaine as far back as 2012, while they are small, they have to be the leading natural wine domaine in the area and produce a fluent range of natural wines from a host of grapes.

Interestingly (and unlike the other local natural wine producers), they focus on single varietal wines, seeking to offer what each grape can express from the terroir with minimal intervention. Their viognier, called Lunatick (Price Band C), is a great example and displays each vintage clearly, from a distinctive basalt terroir. The 2019 is full of apricot fruit, as you might expect; the 2020, however, is much leaner with more reticent fruit; the vintage is the difference.

Vintage can also be a problem. For their white wines (as for many local domaines), their 2021 was essentially a disaster, killed by the frost. The providential result, however, has been that they were forced to blend all their grapes together into a wine they call ‘Arctick’ in reference to the frost. It’s a terrific blend of viognier, roussanne, chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. The viognier part is the most expressive, but it’s a satisfactory round, balanced drink. They are thinking of continuing some aspects of this blend in the future.

While viognier is what they have the most of, they are keener on their terret, which has the best heritage in the Languedoc. For decades, terret’s problem was that it took a lot of sun and could only be harvested very late; today, with global warming, this has one again become an advantage. And Villa Sepia are only too keen to capitalise in a wine they call Poetick. It’s full, with a hint of saltiness on the mouth at the end. (Modern wine term is ‘saline’ but I resent using the word.) Really interesting.

They have a rosé too, called Romantick (Price band C) , made from grenache. This is a new wine and Fred feels his first effort left it on the skin for too long, and hence has too much body, but I enjoyed it. It has natural wine vivacity, though a hint of gas.

Then to the reds, and for me, the highlights are the wines that feature grenache and carignan. Their 100% grenache is Artistick, from seriously old vines. (Price Band C). You’ll find a simply gorgeous nose and hints of menthol in the mouth (surprisingly to me) but enjoyable; a fresh, easy wine. Then, there’s a terrific grenache-carignan blend called Enigmatick (Price Band C), with a lovely nose, menthol again and a medium body. Then, head on to Galactick (Price Band D), a syrah-grenache-carignan blend with lovely, deep fruit, though you have to leave it open for a bit to start with as the gas comes out. And finally to Charismatick, a 100% carignan, with lovely fruit and a hint of tannin. More evidence, were it needed, that once you ease up on pushing it for high yields, carignan can be one of the great grapes on the stage of the wine world.

These are fully natural wines, but in a world of uncertainty for natural wines (for with them, all the risks of making wine are amplified), you can buy these with total confidence. They have been going long enough to know not just how to make the natural wines but have a sense of how they will age.

As natural winemaking becomes more popular in this region, Villa Sepia are the leader of the pack. To put it another way, you don’t have to be into natural wines to enjoy them.