Jan and Caryl Panman travelled the world for work and pleasure before finding their bliss in Limoux. In 2001 they took the plunge and purchased Château Rives-Blanques (named after one of the Pyrenean peaks on the horizon,) a 22 hectare estate near Limoux, surrounded by woodland, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The land is protected by Natura 2000, a European nature reserve and Sustainable Viticulture (Terra Vitis) is practiced.Aided by Eric Vialade, who has run the estate for 30 years, and Pierre Roque, their consulting oenologist, they are making some of the purest, most mineral wines in the area. Now their children are taking a larger role, Jan-Ailbe as the winemaker-in-waiting, Xaxa on the commercial and promotional side. Seriously committed to environmentally sustainable wine growing, they make their wines and manage their lands with ecological integrity, full of respect for nature and for this unique terroir that is their home. Wild flowers, clover or cereals grow between the vines; vine cuttings and composted grape pips and skins are ploughed back into the soil, and they never use hard chemicals or fertilizers. Aided and abetted by the use of harmless pheromones to replace insecticide sprays, we rely on a happy combination of altitude and prevailing brisk, dry winds to keep unwanted pests at bay, in the most natural way possible. Enthusiastic participants of the European environmental program BioDiVine, we continue researching the relationship between viticulture and biodiversity, and have been close working partners of the Chamber of Agriculture for decades.

Blanquette de Limoux is the world’s first and oldest sparkling wine, discovered by Benedictine monks in the abbey of Limoux some 150 years before Champagne was invented. Blanquette was much favored in the 19th century by the Czars of Russia and the President of the USA alike. When Thomas Jefferson died, much of his legendary wine cellar at Monticello was composed of Blanquette de Limoux.