Domaine de Saumarez was created by Liz & Robin Williamson. Liz is from New Zealand, Robin is from Guernsey and we met at the coffee machine at work in London. We have always been passionate about wine, taking many courses in London and travelling widely to extend our knowledge and appreciation of the wine world. The idea to create our own wine estate came about in 2001 and Robin undertook 2 years of studying before we left London in 2003 and headed south in the search of adventure and a good terroir.

After having searched throughout the Languedoc Roussillon from Nîmes to the Spanish border we found our corner of paradise 20 minutes to the west of Montpellier, on the edge of the village of Murviel-les-Montpellier.

There were originally 6.5ha of vines, an abandoned building on the site and lots of potential. We renovated the building in time for the 2004 harvest and have since planted an additional 2.5ha of vines and rent another 5ha.

We will be building a new tasting room with panoramic views in 2020 as well as expanding the cellar to make a more harmonious working environment.

We enjoy passing on our knowledge about grape-growing and winemaking, feel free to pay us a visit all year round, call us on 06 24 41 56 20 to fix a rendezvous. We do group tasting as well, please call us for details.

Ever since we started our project we have wanted to create terroir-driven wines and in order to achieve this we have always tried to work in harmony with nature. The natural evolution of this process was completed with a conversion to organic farming practices in 2009 when we signed up with Ecocert. Production on the Estate is now 100% organic.

For us this was a logical path to follow: we work in our vines, our children eat the grapes that we produce and we also like the environment in which we live. We have always been aware that we are not the owners of the land that we work but the guardians of this little corner of the Languedoc for future generations. With this idea in our heads we seek to create land that is full of life and diversity.

We enjoy observing this diversity in and around our vineyards. We regularly see snakes, lizards, birds, birds of prey, insects, foxes, rabbits, hares as well as a multitude of smaller mammals. We leave the natural flora in and around our vines as much as is possible, leaving hedgerows, woodland and garrigue untouched. We have installed a number of bird nests to encourage an increase in the local bird species, mainly rollers and hoopoes.