Duncan Geddes
Duncan grew up at Château de Mayragues, a beautifully restored medieval castle and the 1st biodynamic vineyard in Gaillac. He qualified as an architect but soon came back to the family estate to craft a fine line of natural wines.
Duncan Geddes, Château de Mayragues
A deer jumps out of the forest as I turn into Chateau de Mayragues. Everyone follows their instincts here, including Duncan Geddes: “We don’t make generic wines here, we make pure, authentic wines with our gut and heart and soul. We work the soils, we work the vines, we weed manually. We don’t add any chemical products. We hand-pick our grapes and craft wines without adding sugars, yeasts or enzymes. It’s just the grapes – and sometimes a tiny bit of sulphur. The wine has to be good and able to travel. We don’t want people getting headaches, but we don’t want to sell vinegar either!”
When Alan and Laurence Geddes acquired this stunning estate in 1983, they began making organic wine immediately. After meeting a biodynamic winemaker at a trade show, Alan was inspired: “We’re going biodynamic!” he declared on his return. “The first vineyard to go organic in Gaillac was Domaine de Cantalauze in 1982, then La Tronque in 1988, then Matens…but the first biodynamic vineyard in Gaillac was Chateau de Mayragues in 1999 - it was Dad!” says Duncan proudly: “He’s a geologist and biodynamic winemaking is all about geology and physics, the influence of the sun, moon and stars on the earth. There are lots of approaches and some are quite esoteric, but Dad hasn’t got long hair and he doesn’t wear leather sandals. That’s not his style. He’s a real protestant from Edinburgh, but even so, he was the first biodynamic winemaker in Gaillac.”
The Geddes family finally moved into the property in 1995. It was a mammoth restoration project. Young Duncan slept in the rafters under heaps of blankets and spent his spare time playing in the rubble. It gave him a taste for grand designs. He went on to qualify as an architect and worked for studios in London and Paris, but it wasn’t long before he came back home. His sights were set beyond the city. He needed to see the horizon! He worked as a stonemason on the castles around Albi and each evening, back at the vineyard or in the winery, there was always more work to do. Today, he runs the estate full-time with his sister Anne: “It’s non-stop, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I could make my life easier by cutting down some trees, spraying my vines with pesticides and machine-harvesting my grapes, which would mean less work and more volume, but I’m more interested in the life of the soils and the quality and authenticity of our wines, just like my Dad.”
So how do you go biodynamic? “You have to be organic to start with” says Duncan, “then you have to learn to work with the lunar calendar and make the preparations to feed the soil and protect the vines.” Biodynamic preparations work like homeopathy. They amplify the vine’s natural resources: “We spray rainwater charged with plant-based, mineral-based or animal based (milk, dung) materials on the vines at various moments in their growth cycle. To make a preparation for 6 hectares of vines, I get up at 4am every morning for a week.” says Duncan. “The “dynamisation” takes about an hour. I pour a few grams of cow-horn silica or camomile or yarrow into a vat of rainwater and then the mixer swirls it around to create a vortex that carries the information deep into the water molecules. Then I spend another hour spraying it onto the vines.” After that, he takes care of the rest of the estate- 47 hectares of arable land including 5 hectares of barley and hops for his beer: “Biodiversity and biodynamics are intimately linked. You have to have different crops growing around the vines. There have to be flowers, animals, insects, they tell the story of the terroir.”
The view from the top is like a Roman dream: 30 sheep, 2 donkeys, 2 rivers, 65 hectares of woodland and 13 hectares of vines. Duncan works with local grape varieties - Braucol, Duras, Loin de L’Oeil and Mauzac - and he has Syrah, Gamay and Cabernet Sauvignon too. Each variety has its own distinct plot, on the chalky heights or further down the valley: “The lowest vines are planted at 250m altitude and the slope climbs to 260m. Those 10m change everything: the degree of alcohol, the date to harvest, the risk of frost. The forest provides natural protection in the heat of summer, but it gets very cold in the valley too - which is great because we rarely get alcohol levels over 13.5°, but the vines are exposed to the late winter freeze. It’s a constant balancing act.”
It’s a balancing act in the winery too: the reds mature in concrete tanks or barrels made from oak or locally-grown acacia, and the whites in stainless steel or fibreglass - except for Brut de Mayragues, a fine pet-nat (sparkling wine) that celebrates the ancestral method. Discover Duncan’s 100% Loin de L’Oeil - floral, delicate and wonderful with Quercy melon or a fish dish. Soak up 1609, a fruity, spicy blend of Duras and Syrah with lively notes of red and blackcurrants to pair with summer BBQs or a platter of local cheese. Les Mages is a structured, elegant red wine on black fruit, blackcurrants and plums - a blend of Braucol and Cabernet Sauvignon aged in barrels that will please fans of meaty cuisine. Don’t skip on Duncan’s Orange wine - a delicious Loin de l’Oeil gently macerated on the skins. It’s ample and flavoursome with barely-there tanins, just enough to offer a moreish bitterness that works beautifully with grilled white meat, nutty cheeses and dark chocolate.
Go for a tasting at this beautiful place! Duncan will guide you through his entire range (in English or French) and give you an eye-opening, mouth-watering taste of his wines in-the-making along the way…
At a Glance
Hectares
13
Terroir
Clay-limestone slopes. Chalky plateaux and cool valleys surrounded by verdant woodland
Grape Varieties
Mauzac, Loin de L’Oeil, Braucol, Duras, Syrah, Gamay, Cabernet Franc
Contact
contact@chateau-de-mayragues.com
