Visiting the Coustals and their Cave- "Terres Georges"

In Castelnau d'Aude, a young couple, Anne Marie and Roland Coustal, has taken over a local cave (cellar) and vineyards that had belonged to Anne Marie's parents and began producing their wines in very traditional ways.  Roland and Anne Marie Coustal are a charming couple with a love of wine and with great pride in their wines.  The Coustals are not vintners, they are wine artisans. 

They have only had their winery open for a few years, and already they have been recognized with some rather impressive awards. 

They took us through the process that they use to make their wines and then told us about a very special vintage.  Each year, the Coustals do a late harvest of grapes from one acre of their vineyards to produce one barrel annually of a late harvest white wine.  Of course we had to try it and ended up buying a bottle of this rare nectar along with two bottles of their other wines.

Some of the parts of the wine making process

Anne Marie Coustal

Roland Coustal

Friend Jean Perrillou and his son at the Cave

Randy after tasting one of the treasures of Terres Georges with Anne Marie looking on

To the right is Randy with 11 of the 12 bottles of wine that we bought  during our week in the Languedoc and which we brought home with us.

Click on the picture of Randy and the wine loot to continue on our trip.  Next up- the Abbey of Fontfroide.