Domaine Virgile Joly : a passion for terroir wines

For the last 10 years, Virgile Joly has been extracting from the soil the red fruit flavours that subtly infuse his delicious wines. They are wines that combine his attachment to the land and his underlying knowledge with a total respect for nature.

Having spent his childhood in the Rhone Valley between Avignon and Vaison-la-Romaine, Virgile, whose grandfather was a wine-grower, remains deeply attached to the land. After working as an oenologist in France and Chilli, he created his own winery in March 2000 with 1 hectare of vines, for his 10^th vinification.

A few months later he gained a further 4 hectares for rent, which allowed him to set himself up as a young farmer in 2001, the same year that he converted to certified organic farming methods.

In the same year, the English writer, Patrick Moon, spent two weeks a month with Virgile, leading to him publishing a book called “VIRGILE’S VINEYARD, A Year in the Languedoc Wine Country” (Ed John Murrays). The book recounts not only Virgile’s experience as a wine-grower, but also the history of wine in the Languedoc.

In 2003 an additional 3 hectares of vines augmented the estate. The following year, Magdalena Bogucka, Virgile’s companion joined him at the winery.

After the initial euphoria of creating a new winery came the time to restructure, in order to continually improve the vineyard, cultivation methods and work in the wine-cellar as well as the administrative running of the winery and commercializing the wines.

By 2006, the winery was employing 3 people and was cultivating 8.5 hectares producing around 2 500 cases of wine, or about 30 000 bottles.

Today, the Domaine Virgile Joly is a family affair. Magdalena works alongside Virgile to help him achieve his goal of making premium organic wines.

As well as running their own 15 hectares of vines (split between Jonquières, Saint Guiraud and Saint Saturnin), they also went into partnership with Christopher Johnson-Gilbert, a City lawyer, who acquired 10 hectares of vines in Montpeyroux. This meeting led to a fruitful collaboration, both technical and human, which allowed Virgile Joly to work in a new territory, the Montpeyroux appellation, on an additional 10 hectares (the first vintage being a rosé in 2009). It also allowed him to build a new state-of-the-art wine-making cellar in the commune of Arboras. Average production in 2010 was 45 000 bottles and is planned to reach 80 000 bottles by 2012.