Our family story
3rd Generation
Family-Owned Business
The Clos de Bigos is above all a family affair, grandfather André started the wine-growing activity with half a hectare of vines as was common in the 1950s while his wife was a seamstress.
Their daughter, Christiane, married Raymond, then both employees of the Post Office in Paris in the 1970s. They returned to the Médoc and took over the family property: Raymond in viticulture and Christiane in labeling and sales. They gave birth to Nicolas in 1978 who took over the property in 2020 as owner-operator after having studied viticulture and oenology. Nicolas has also learned a lot from many years alongside his grandfather, father and mother.
His wife, Karine, takes care of communication, the creation of labels, screen-printed glasses, the website and other little novelties while Paul, his son, is preparing for a sommelier diploma. It is not uncommon to come across them on the property to present the family business.
The 1,60 hectares vineyard is now 60 years old on average with plots of vines over 100 years old.
When you know that it is the old vines that produce the best wines, without great yield of course, it is not surprising that the wine of Clos de Bigos offers this good nature of artisanal wines: kindness of heart and simplicity of manners.
The soil is worked as in the past, that is to say by shaping with hilling and decavallonnage, using a high-clearance tractor, because in the cellar and the vat room, the majority of the steps are carried out by hand . The harvest is carefully sorted and de-stemmed by family and friends as soon as it is received in the vat room.
Fermentation takes place in cement tanks. It is in oak barrels (1/3 new per year) and in amphoras that the wine will be aged for 24 months, then bottled and marketed at reasonable prices. But we are still in the Margaux appellation!
About Margaux appellation
Margaux is a French red wine with a controlled designation of origin produced in 4 communes of the Médoc: Arsac, Margaux-Cantenac, Labarde and Soussans. The Margalais vineyard extends about twenty-five kilometers north of Bordeaux, on the left bank of the Gironde.
It is the most famous of the communal appellations of the Médoc vineyard, of which Château Margaux is world famous. It is also said that Margaux are the most feminine of Médoc wines.
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The characteristics of Margaux are recognized on August 10, 1954 by the granting of a controlled designation of origin. The specifications were updated in November 2011, as for all French wine appellations.
The terroir is made up of gravel hilltops, vast hills with rounded tops at low altitude: 15 meters. They are separated by small drainage streams or jalles. In the center of the appellation, a plateau of white gravel, six kilometers by two, produces the majority of the Grands Crus Classés.
Cru Artisan
Existing for 150 years (the 1868 edition of Bordeaux and its wines, Cocks and Féret mentions their quality) the Crus Artisans had disappeared in the 1930s.
Since 1989, the Syndicat des Crus Artisans du Médoc has put all its energy into restoring its nobility to these wines.
In 1994, European regulations brought this denomination back into the spotlight and authorized the inscription on the main label of the mention Cru Artisan. Since 2017, with new specifications, the ranking is reviewed every 5 years.
On May 12, 2023, the new 2022 classification of Médoc crus artisans was unveiled by Qualisud, which is the certifying body. 33 properties have obtained the mention, which is valid for five years. The jury, made up of professionals from the wine sector (traders, brokers, oenologists and wine experts), visited the farms and tasted the wines (on the 2016, 2018 and 2019 vintages).
Behind each Cru Artisan is an owner, who is totally involved in the work of the vineyard, in the cellars, in sales and public relations. This is a sine qua non!
The Clos de Bigos located in the commune of Soussans Margaux appellation is the very example of this, with a production of 10,000 bottles.