A flock of a dozen children descends from the vines to the bucket filled with just-harvested grapes. The small, wide-open hand of Augustin, the son of the owners of Labastide Fondousse, as well as those of his cousins and friends, descends on the grapes to pick out a few grains. The blond boy, whose milk tooth recently fell out, puts one in his mouth, like one would bite a piece of candy, before going back to play between the rows.
“We have to sort this box of grapes again!” » points out, not far from there, his mother, Marie Loustalan-Prévost. On the morning of this Saturday, September 28, 2024, it is harvest day for this estate that she maintains with her husband, Vincent, in Villenave, a neighboring village of Rion-des-Landes and Ousse-Suzan.
Marie Loustalan-Prévost, her husband Vincent Prévost and their son Augustin take care of Labastide Fondousse, a wine property of less than 1 hectare located in Villenave, between Tartas and Rion-des-Landes.
Philippe Salvat / SO
Described as “strange” by the Hachette Wine Guide, with its vintage which “steps off the beaten track”the 0.8 hectare micro-vineyard remains the resurgence of the wine-growing past of a larger territory, when the Landes were English.
King of England
“We find traces of the transport of wines from the County of Arjuzanx to London in the archives of the King of England,” confides Vincent Prévost about the antiquity of this vineyard, known since medieval times.
Merlot, cabernet franc and tannat are the three grape varieties planted at Labastide Fondousse.
Philippe Salvat / SO
“At the beginning of the 20th century, there were still 200 hectares of vines around here. Each farm made its own wine. The idea of creating a cellar never came to fruition: the owners never got along with each other,” recalls Roger Duputs. A 70-year-old retired carpenter, he himself continues to work his own family vineyard, while “giving a helping hand” to Labastide Fondousse with Alain Tauziède, a former agricultural mechanic. “It keeps us busy. And then it relieves Marie. »
Roger Duputs is one, with Alain Tauziède, of the retirees who watch over the Loustalan-Prévost family’s vineyards in Villenave.
Philippe Salvat / SO
The atypical winemaker from Labastide Fondousse divides her time between Gironde – where the forty-year-old works with François Despagne to promote the wine tourism activities of Château Grand Corbin Despagne, one of the great classified growths of Saint-Émilion – and fine wines. weeks in the Landes. “Labastide Fondousse is a family story,” explains Marie Loustalan-Prévost.
IGP Landes
The label thus mentions “bottling by the Loustalan family. » The protected geographical indication IGP Landes means much more than it seems for this native Béarnaise who has vines in her blood. “This estate belonged to my great-aunt, Marthe Riquoire. The vines had been abandoned since the death of the sharecropper, Petit Jules, when my parents inherited them in 2001.”
The harvest at Labastide Fondousse is an opportunity for reunions between several generations.
Philippe Salvat / SO
“My father, Gari Loustalan, now deceased, made me understand that we were not going to let this heritage be lost. On the contrary, he pushed us to keep it going and continue its story. » An uprooting of the vines had preceded the planting of the first of the “1,500 vines of Cabernet Franc, 1,000 vines of Merlot and 500 vines of Tannat” which today make up the vineyard’s grape varieties.
“My father, Gari Loustalan, now deceased, made me understand that we were not going to let this heritage be lost. On the contrary, he pushed us to keep it going and continue its story. »
Since “a first label in 2009”, several generations of the family and their friends have met in Villenave, at the end of summer, to harvest these vines surrounded by pines and oaks.
Harvesting operations are done by hand in Labastide Fondousse.
Philippe Salvat / SO
Drinkability
This environment and the clayey nature of the soil allow Marie Loustalan-Prévost to serve a wine in which “lightness and freshness” prevail. Drinkability is sought after, with an alcohol level maintained at less than 13%.
The youngest harvesters are introduced to pressing the grapes.
Philippe Salvat / SO
“To show what I could do with this terroir, I did not age it in barrels,” specifies the winegrower. The wines are drawn the spring following the harvest, after a few months in vats and a passage through a manual press.
“If you bring in a nice grape, you have a better chance of it working,” admits the owner of Labastide Fondousse. Here, mechanization is embodied only in the form of a small tractor. “The entire harvest is done by hand: harvesting, destemming, destemming, sorting, crushing…” The gestures of a passion.
The juices from this 2024 harvest will remain in the vats of the Labastide Fondousse winery until they are bottled next spring.
Philippe Salvat / SO
Where to taste this wine?
With less than 3,500 bottles per vintage, Labastide Fondousse wine is available for around 10 euros from wine merchants in the department: the Cave du Brassenx, in Morcenx-la-Nouvelle, the Bistrot des vignes, in Dax, and the Cave du Sommelier, in Mont-de-Marsan. Various restaurants in the Landes have also included this wine on their menu, such as Villa Mirasol in Mont-de-Marsan, Maison Devaux, in Rion-des-Landes, Family, in Ousse-Suzan, Côté Ouest, in Ygos, Maison Sébi, in Bahus-Soubiran, the Auberge du Lavoir de Garrosse, the Clos Nicolas, in Eugénie-les-Bains, and the Vauclin, in Mimizan… Sale at the estate, by telephone reservation: 06 82 32 58 51.
Labastide Fondousse produces less than 3,500 bottles of a wine made from a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Tannat each year.
Philippe Salvat / SO
