.the vineyard
The location
Château Camplazens is located on the highest plateau of the La Clape region in the Aude, between Armissan, Narbonne and Narbonne Plage, at the heart of the Narbonnaise Regional Natural Park. This ancient roman outcrop is recognized as the largest natural protected site in the Languedoc (Natura 2000). This designation has conserved its wild, rugged and emotive beauty from its insular origins. Vines thrive in this harsh environment bathed in sunshine and light.
The climate
The rocky outcrop of La Clape has a dry and harsh climate. Sun and wind make a generous couple that bathe and sweep the bare rocks. If La Clape is one of the sunniest places in France (with up to 3 000 hours of sun per year) it owes it to the 13 winds that cross in its sky. Hence, the Tramontane, Cers, Ponant, winds from Spain, Lebech or Gregaou share the task of chasing away clouds that could hide the beauty of this landscape. From time to time, a southern storm manages to breach the adof the dominance of winds of La Clape. This rare unleashing an event to behold. The Clape becomes a tropical island. Pines and reeds bend under the elements and the ravines weave their network. The vine strengthen itself at sight of this triple contact: the water irrigates and cleans, the wind dries and airs the vines while the sun feeds it and fills its grapes with sugar. The harshness of this climate is a guarantee of high quality wines.
The earth
Our vineyard, whipped by the Tramontane, owes its singularity from a crackled limestone soil which, combined with maritime Mediterranean climates favours the maintenance of a great biodiversity (garrigue) and brings to our Mediterranean wines a lot of freshness, minerality and race.
The owners
Peter & Susan Close
Susan and Peter, originally from the north of England, always had a passion for French wines and gastronomy. After having raised their family in the United States, they decided to follow their dream of owning a vineyard and took on the challenge of creating quality wines at Château Camplazens. They believe in differentiation by excellence and their commercial strategy has now reached a clientele of over 100 distributors in 26 countries.
The directors
Philippe, Yann and Léandre
Each responsible for their own sector of the activity at the domaine, they make a complementary team at the head of the company. Yann, the vineyard manager, handles all the wine-growing and production of the domaine, Philippe handles the administration and logistics, and Léandre manages the commercial, marketing and event side of Camplazens.
The team
All with different experiences, our employees show know-how, and motivation, and are the bedrock of the work carried out on the vines and in the cellar.