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Domaine du Clos des Fées, Le Clos des Fées 2008 (Hervé Bizeul)
RedFrance2008
By Daniel Min · Tasted 2020-03-04 · Published 2026-09-23 · Updated 2026-09-23
At a glance
In one line
4.0/5 — lower than Vivino's 4.3 average · world avg price US$99 · Hervé Bizeul, a Paris sommelier and wine journalist, settled in Vingrau in the Roussillon in 1998 and named his estate "the fairies' vineyard." Vivino: 225 ratings averaging 4.3.
No critic scores are listed on Vivino. The estate's own materials note that the 2006 vintage received 93 points from Wine Spectator, but a critic score for the 2008 vintage itself could not be confirmed.
Market note: Le Clos des Fées is said to go through a "shut-down" phase around its second year in bottle before slowly opening up over eight to fifteen years. It's unfiltered, with malolactic fermentation and 100% new-oak aging both carried out together in five-hectoliter puncheons.
What this wine is
Before Hervé Bizeul made wine, he sold it and wrote about it. He was named France's best young sommelier in 1981, ran a restaurant and wine bar in Paris, and spent the 1990s publishing three editions of an ambitious wine-industry directory called Grappes. He first visited Vingrau, in the Agly Valley of the Roussillon, in 1997 — as he later put it, he was "fed up with Paris and impressed by the terroir at Vingrau," so he bought a parcel, initially just as a hobby. What began as a hobby turned into a full career by 1998, when he added more old-vine parcels of Carignan, Grenache and Lladoner Pelut, bought cheap. That same year, with help from neighbors like Gérard Gauby, his debut vintage sold 7,000 bottles — enough success to secure bank financing and expand the estate.
The domaine's name, "Clos des Fées" — the fairies' vineyard — draws on Celtic and local folklore around Vingrau. Bizeul himself describes it in poetic rather than documentary terms: if the fairies still gather and dance at the summer solstice, he says, it would be here, in this singular and mysterious place. A precise founding legend or historical source for the name isn't clearly established even in the estate's own materials.
Bizeul's most experimental streak shows up in La Petite Sibérie ("Little Siberia"), first made in 2001 from a single parcel of century-old Grenache vines in Calce — nicknamed for the biting Tramontane wind that blows there more than 200 days a year. The first vintage ran to just 1,800 bottles, aged in 100% new oak and bottled unfiltered, making it the estate's most experimental and expensive wine. The wine covered here, "Le Clos des Fées" itself, is the flagship: Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache Noir and Carignan Noir in exactly equal quarters, put through malolactic fermentation and 100% new-oak aging together in five-hectoliter puncheons, then aged eighteen months on lees.
What the world says
This 2008 vintage has 225 Vivino ratings averaging 4.3 — actually higher than the wine's overall average of 4.2 across 3,030 ratings. No critic scores are listed on Vivino; the estate's own materials record a 93-point score from Wine Spectator for the 2006 vintage, but a score for the 2008 vintage itself couldn't be confirmed.
The flavor keywords lead with black fruit — blackberry, plum (100 mentions) — followed by an earth group of leather and earthy notes (73), then oak and vanilla (68). Structure: acidity 3.8/5, on the higher side among the southern French reds covered in this magazine, with intensity 4.1 and tannin 3.7 — a powerful wine that leans on acidity for balance.
"Excellent night out with friends. Divine. Classy. Aromatic. Jammy. Slightly sweet. Smooth. Juicy." — Vivino review, Jul 2020, 4.5 stars
"Clos des Fées at its best!" — Vivino review, Jul 2015, 4.5 stars
Drinking window: 2012–2023. I drank mine in March 2020, roughly at the midpoint.
How I drank it
4 March 2020, 4.0 stars. "Oak, earthy, blackberry, chocolate, leather... The aroma isn't especially varied, but there's an old-vine earthiness to it, like a whiff of home. I like that you can feel the years in it~~ and the first impression of oakiness is lovely too." A short but pointed note — the fact that I gave it 4.0 despite calling it 'not especially varied' suggests the emotional payoff of age and earthiness outweighed any lack of breadth in the aromatics.
The phrase "a whiff of home" is interesting. This wine comes from old vines in a Mediterranean corner of southern France, and connecting that earthiness to "home" was clearly a personal association of mine rather than anything the wine itself dictates. Vivino's structure data puts acidity at a relatively high 3.8/5, but my note focused less on that acid drive than on the texture of earth and leather — twelve years of age had likely kept the initial oak impression intact while softening the tannin into something rounder.
I gave it 4.0, 0.3 below the community average of 4.3. Set against other Old World and southern reds this magazine has covered, wines that scored on the strength of showy aromatics (Seña, Almaviva), this Clos des Fées admitted to being 'not especially varied' and still landed at 4.0 — a wine that persuaded not through range of aroma but through the texture that time had built into it.
Vivino community data
2008 vintage rating distribution (225 ratings, average 4.3)
| 5★ | 46 (20%) | |
| 4★ | 146 (65%) | |
| 3★ | 32 (14%) | |
| 2★ | 1 (0%) | |
| 1★ | 0 (0%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Black fruit | 100 | blackberry 29 · black fruit 21 · plum 11 · dark fruit 8 · blueberry 7 |
| Earth | 73 | leather 25 · earthy 19 · minerals 7 · smoke 6 · graphite 4 |
| Oak | 68 | oak 25 · vanilla 17 · chocolate 9 · tobacco 5 · mocha 3 |
| Spice | 35 | pepper 14 · licorice 7 · cinnamon 5 · rosemary 4 · mint 1 |
| Red fruit | 28 | cherry 14 · red fruit 7 · raspberry 6 · red cherry 1 |
| Dried fruit | 10 | dried plum 7 · dried blackberry 2 · raisin 1 |
| Yeast & cream | 4 | cream 3 · oil 1 |
Structure: Acidity 3.8/5 · Intensity 4.1/5 · Tannin 3.7/5 · Sweetness 1.9/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 3030 ratings, average 4.2)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4.3 | 49 |
| 2020 | 4.3 | 49 |
| 2019 | 4.2 | 122 |
| 2018 | 4.2 | 146 |
| 2017 | 4.2 | 96 |
| 2016 | 4.3 | 132 |
| 2015 | 4.3 | 272 |
| 2014 | 4.3 | 212 |
| 2013 | 4.2 | 184 |
| 2012 | 4.2 | 168 |
| 2011 | 4.2 | 210 |
| 2010 | 4.2 | 158 |
| 2009 | 4.2 | 164 |
| 2008 | 4.3 | 225 |
| 2007 | 4.3 | 223 |
| 2006 | 4.2 | 182 |
| 2005 | 4.3 | 127 |
| 2004 | 4.1 | 40 |
| 2001 | 4.2 | 31 |
My original note (Vivino, 2020-03-04)
“oak earthy blackberry chocolate leather 아로마가 그렇게 다채롭진 않지만 고향의 향수를 느끼듯 올빈의 흙냄세가 난다. 세월을 느낄 수 있어서 좋고~~ 처음 다가오는 oaky 함도 사랑스럽다.”
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Le Clos des Fées 2008?
The flagship red from Domaine du Clos des Fées (Hervé Bizeul) in Vingrau, Côtes du Roussillon. It blends Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache Noir and Carignan Noir at 25% each, aged 18 months in 100% new oak. 15% ABV. Vivino: 225 ratings averaging 4.3.
How much does it cost?
World average price: pending Wine-Searcher confirmation (US$99 per 750ml ex-tax (Wine-Searcher, Sept 2026)).
What food pairs well with it?
Vivino users suggest beef, veal and pasta. With intensity at 4.1/5 and relatively high acidity, it pairs especially well with rich meat dishes.
Who is Hervé Bizeul?
France's best young sommelier in 1981, who went on to run a restaurant and wine bar in Paris and publish a wine-industry directory as a journalist. He fell for the terroir of Vingrau, in the Roussillon, in 1997 and founded the estate the following year — today counted among the region's defining producers.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- Decanter — Producer Profile: Domaine du Clos des Fées
- Le Clos des Fées official — La Petite Sibérie
- Le Clos des Fées official — Project
- Le Clos des Fées official — Wines (blend and aging details)
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