Château du Donjon

Château du Donjon is located about 10 kilometres north-east of Carcassonne in the heart of Bagnoles. It was once the property of the monks of the abbey of Caunes-Minervois and was used as an outpost. It takes its name from the ancient castle at Bagnoles. The estate has been in the PANIS-MIALHE family since the 15th century and still has its picturesque 13th century donjon.

Guy Panis took over the estate in 1958 at the age of 24 followi...

The vineyards of Château du Donjon stretch out over the rural district of Bagnoles in the western part of the Minervois called “Clamoux”. The estate’s 60 hectares are divided as follow: 30 hectares are in A.O.P Minervois and the rest is classified as I.G.PCôteaux de Peyriac (Regional wines). The soil structure is gravely on the terraces and clayey-limestone on the hillsides. The estate is planted with the region's red grapes which are Syrah, G...

Come harvesting time the grapes are picked, sorted and destemmed in the vineyard before arriving at the cellar. As for the winemaking, with Jean's plot by plot approach each grape variety and parcel will be fermented separately in concrete vats. Stainless still vats are mainly used to produce the Minervoisrosé and whites. The fermentations will vary from 10 days to 3 to 4 weeks for the Syrah using indigenous yeasts. The exception is the Carign...

The Minervois appellation was created in 1985, it is located in the Languedoc region north-east of the Medieval city of Carcassonne. It is named after the ancient city of Minerve, originally a Roman fortress named after the Goddess Minerva. The appellation stretches for 60 kilometres from east to west and about 20 kilometres from north to south across the departments of Aude and Hérault. It is also one of the 18 appellations within the Langued...