Domaine du Cros

Marcillac is one of the smallest appellations in France: one hundred and eighty hectares in all, in the heart of the Aveyron, on red clay hillsides known locally as rougiers, beneath limestone plateaus.

The grape is fer servadou, called mansois in the area. The rules require a minimum of 80% and allow the rest to be cabernet sauvignon, merlot or prunelard; this house bottles all of its appellation wines from 100% mansois.

For four generations, up to 1984, the estate was one hectare and some four thousand bottles a year. In 1984 Philippe Teulier joined his parents and from there the estate went from three hectares to thirty, buying and renting established vines and planting the best slopes, some with gradients reaching 65%.

Thirty hectares inside a one-hundred-and-eighty-hectare appellation means the house farms around a sixth of everything planted under that name.

Julien Teulier joined in 2004.