Ch. de Fontarèche

With a history dating back to the tenth century, the current domaine consists of 200 hectares that encircle a fortress constructed in the 12th century. It has been in the ownership of the Comte de Lamy’s family for nine generations, but there is nothing remotely antique about the methods they now employ. The 160 hectares planted to vine lie equally in Corbiere’s appellation and the surrounding IGP’s. The multiplicity of terroirs in this expansive terrain enables them to grow no fewer than 17 different varieties, including some interlopers. We, of course, have chosen to select an introductory range derived exclusively from autochthonous varieties. You will be impressed.

Producer:	Ch. de Fontarèche
Country:	France
Region:	Languedoc
Subregion:	Aude
City of Origin:	Canet d'Aude
Owner Name:	Family De Lamy
Vineyard Size:	140 HA
Total Annual Production:	630,000 bottles

Property History:

The first mention of Fontarèche can be found in a deed dated 984, in which Sieur ERMENGAUD, the Archbishop of Narbonne, granted someone named Sifrède ‘the smallholding known as Fontareche with the tower that is there, except for the church and ecclesiastical elements’ as an honorary fiefdom. He would feed sixteen knights every year. In 1201, the Archbishop of Narbonne commissioned a moated fortress in Fontarèche. An inventory of the Archbishop of Narbonne’s revenue and seigneurial rights which was drawn up in the second half of the 14th century notes for Fontarèche: ‘a fortified castle with keep and chapel, seigneurial and other land, vines purchased by Pierre de la Jugie (Archbishop of Narbonne from 1347 to 1375), a pasture, a meadow, a forest with rabbit warrens...’ Towards the late 17th century, Fontarèche acquired the status of a ‘specific seigneury’ and became the property of nobles.

Owner History:

included various famous painters, such as Pierre MIGNARD who succeeded Lebrun as the director of the Royal Academy of Painting under King Louis XIV. He was the portrait painter for the king and major figures at the court, and his works include the paintings which decorate the dome of the Church of the Val-de-Grâce in Paris, as well as The Virgin of the Grapes which is on display at the Louvre Museum. The LAMY family which now owns Fontarèche are descendants of the MIGNARD family, with Marie-Eulalie MIGNARD (who died there in 1943) the last owner to bear the Mignard name. She now lies in the chateau’s chapel. 1957 saw Fontarèche’s current owner Jacques de LAMY take over from his father Count Edouard de LAMY.