Gérard Bertrand - Rouge Clair 2024

Gérard Bertrand has made his name one of the most dynamic brands in the French wine industry. While he describes making wines from the South as an “art of living,” he is first and foremost a meticulous and demanding winemaker, striving for excellence across his 17 estates. This quest finds its culmination in the Clos d’Ora, a magnificent wine from the heights of La Livinière, and in a rosé from the Cabrières terroir—the Clos du Temple cuvée—which shines with its intense personality. Since 2002, he has been leading a large-scale conversion of his vineyards to organic and biodynamic farming, making his estate one of the most significant in France in terms of sustainable viticulture. All of the estates’ wines are remarkable.

Over the past 20 years, former international rugby player Gérard Bertrand has built an exceptionally dynamic business in Languedoc. For this achievement, he was named “Wine Merchant of the Year” by *La Revue du vin de France* in 2016. Starting with the family vineyard in Villemajou, in the Corbières, in 1987, his empire now sells millions of bottles each year and encompasses several hundred hectares spread across various sites, from Malepère to the Terrasses du Larzac. Since 2012, he has been producing his flagship wine, Clos d’Ora, using biodynamic methods—a practice he has since extended to his entire vineyard. Château l’Hospitalet, just outside Narbonne, is a comprehensive, high-quality visitor center—a place well worth a stop.