Figuire is a 210-acre organic wine estate located in La Londe, a sub-appellation of the C?tes-de-Provence AOP. Alain Combard arrived from Chablis in 1992 and purchased the property after discovering its unique terroir. Today, the second generation of the Combard family carries on the pioneering spirit of their father. Alain?s daughter Magali runs the commercial side of the business while her brother Fran?ois assists Alain in the cellar. La Londe enjoys cooler temperatures than the rest of the C?tes-de-Provence thanks to the influence of the sea and its schist soils bring an underpinning of minerality to the wines. ?The schist in La Londe seduced my father,? says daughter Magali, ?schist and the sea make our style.?\n\nLocation of Vineyard \nFigui?re is in La Londe-les-Maures between Marseille and Nice with vineyards that lie just a few hundred meters from the Mediterranean Sea. ?There?s a five-degree difference in temperature from our vineyards to those of the interior,? says Magali, ?the freshness found in our wines is very singular to the La Londe region.? The original 44-acre estate has been farmed organically since 1979. Over time, the Combard family grew Figui?re to its current size of 210 acres of vineyard certified organic by Ecocert. Additionally, Figui?re purchases grapes from contracted growers to produce their C?tes-de-Provence Signature series and Saint Andr? Var IGP.\n\nWinemaking Philosophy \nInitially, Alain Combard focused on Rolle, the local name for Vermentino. ?Very few wineries were bottling ros? in the early 1990s,? says Magali, ?my dad made his name applying his knowledge of Chablis to the white grape varieties of Provence.? From grapes grown in schist and in the hands of a Chablisien, Alain learned that Rolle could be fine, structured, and full of minerality. Today, all of the wines produced at Figui?re are produced with this goal in mind. ?We like clean wines and we like to feel vitality of the earth,? says Magali. For the Combards, this means no maquillage (makeup) to cover up the fruit with the flavor of new oak barrels and high levels of ripeness that could potentially overwhelm the terroir. "We want every wine from Figui?re to show the uniqueness of Provence and terroir expression of La Londe."
