Antonin Bonnet and Pierre Caizergues both come from winemaking families in the Languedoc, near Montpellier and Carcassonne respectively, however they only met and became friends while working within the same circles in New York City. Their dream of making wine began after they shared an inspirational bottle of Carignan that reminded them of their homeland. Tired of their old jobs and driven by the mutual dream of having their own estate, in 2016 they returned to the Languedoc and to their roots, setting about the work of slowly building what is now Domaine de Stricou. Propelled to redouble their efforts after the world-changing events of 2020, they refocused on their new winemaking endeavor full time.
Pierre and Antonin specialize in sustainability in agriculture and their creative approach to this is to focus on resistant grape varieties; crossings of endemic grape varieties from the south of France and other parts of Europe, believing that making wines of terroir with non-traditional grape varieties will be be of the utmost importance in the fight for more sustainable farming practices and climate change moving forward. They also work with beautiful old-vine vineyards planted to native vines such as Carignan and Grenache. Antonin and Pierre farm all their vineyards strictly organically. Although they are located in Stricou which is just west of Carcassonne between the appellations of Malepere and Limoux, they don’t care very much about having AOP status and most of the wines are sold under the category Vin de France. This gives them much more liberty in their winemaking and in the final blend of the wines.
The domaine as of 2022 is 60 acres, but only 6 acres are currently planted to vines. They plan on planting about 2 more acres every year. In addition to the grapes they currently grow, they act as micro-negociants via fermage contacts—purchasing fruit from land they farm but owned by friends and family, until all of their own vineyards are fully mature.
The ultimate vison for their domaine is at once lofty and grounded. On one hand their goal of being a catalyst for open-mined solutions for future vineyards plantings is a big one. On the other hand, they just want to make affordable, delicious, terroir-driven wines. For them, both goals are attainable.
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