Domaine De L'oustal Blanc

Amazing Isabel's Destiny

Isabel Cardoso-Fonquerle was born in Guinea-Bissau, a Lusophone West African country of stunning beauty, where cashew nuts, yams, cassava, sweet potatoes, and tropical fruits are harvested … but where she grew up knowing nothing of the
cultivation of the vine. The only grapes that Isabel had seen in her childhood were in
the form of pretty earrings that her mother gave to her for her 15th birthday …Trained at Lafayette Gourmet. A sign, an omen? Many years later, in 1998, in Paris where she had established herself, Isabel encountered the complex world of wine with a seasonal job at Lafayette Gourmet, a high place for the French art de Vivre. What was supposed to be only a summer job blossomed into a vocation, after Bruno Quenioux, a great sommelier, offered her to join his team. Trained in the prestigious Parisian cellar, recognized for her skills as a taster and her knowledge of wine, Isabel was for four years the hostess of the wine and champagne bar of this institution that always welcomes connoisseurs from all over the world. Became an accomplished winegrower. However, Isabel's earrings were more than a sign; they heralded the amazing destiny of a young woman born in the African tropics who, through other encounters and circumstances, will soon assert herself as an accomplished winegrower …

A Natural Philosophy

The ambition pursued at the Domaine de L'Oustal Blanc is to develop with
native grape varieties (Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache Noir, and Gris) a range of
wines which, without denying the characteristics of very sunny southern wines, remain focused on fruit, finesse, purity, complexity, power. In the pursuit of this ambition, from the vine to the cellar, Isabel applies a philosophy of naturalness, respect of the soil, the environment, and the
noble grapes of the terroir of La Livinière.

Respectful Agriculture

On her eight hectares of vines, Isabel practices natural agriculture with a biodynamic philosophy. Plowing is limited to producing oxygen in grassy soil all year round which allows more carbon to be stored and thus naturally conserves water, organic matter, and mineral elements. There is a total absence of weedkillers and very limited copper and sulfur treatments.

85% of the vines are grown in old goblets (Grenache Gris and Noir, Carignan, and Cinsault) and 15% in Cordon de Royat (Syrah).

Manual Harvest

The domain L'Oustal Blanc practice manual harvesting in small boxes of 12 kg pierced with a first sorting in the vineyard and then cooling of the harvest to 10 ° before passing through the stemmer and finally on a vibrating table a final manual sorting. Thus, the grapes reached the winery totally cleared of all green materials.