Domaine Coudoulet

A road climbs toward the limestone plateau outside Cesseras, and the scenery hardens into something elemental—rock, scrub, wind, and time. That’s the setting Domaine Coudoulet calls home: a family property since 1840, anchored in Minervois and its most demanding hillside heart, Cru La Livinière.

The estate’s tone is set by a single idea—faithfulness: to the place the wine comes from, to the history it inherits, and to the hands that make it.
Eight generations into the story, the winery now carries three distinct lines: Domaine Coudoulet (single-varietal IGP Pays d’Oc wines), Château Cesseras (AOP Minervois and Cru La Livinière cuvées), and Ournac Frères (limited editions).

Location

The vineyards sit on the foothills of the Black Mountain, in the Minervois zone of Languedoc, rooted in clay-limestone soils and surrounded by classic garrigue—juniper, thyme, holm oak, wild lavender—plus almond and olive trees.
Altitude is part of the signature: the estate describes sites ranging roughly 80 to 350 meters, with zones where elevation climbs above 200m—a combination that slows ripening and builds structure through wider day–night swings.

Winemaking & Philosophy

The people behind the bottles are named plainly: Camille Ournac as winemaker, Guillaume Ournac managing the vineyards, alongside Pierre-André and Fanely—the 7th and 8th generations carrying the work forward as a family project rather than a brand exercise.

In the cellar, the goal is balance—vinification described as “almost traditional,” with blending driven by accumulated knowledge and the individual character of each plot.
On the land, Minervois is treated as two intertwined voices: the broader AOP Minervois (tender, velvety wines) and AOP Minervois La Livinière (richer, more complex wines with a slower maturation profile), both shaped by that limestone plateau and its temperature contrasts.