Ournac Frères

The name and the labels carry the family's history. In the 19th century, Jean Ournac moved to Toulouse and started a wine trading business. His two sons, Camille and Henri, shared a passion for caricature drawing and signed their sketches "Ka-Mill" and "Hen-Ry" – Ournac Frères, the Ournac brothers. Today the old line drawings from the satirical press of that era decorate the bottles, printed on recycled paper. Camille, incidentally, went on to become mayor of Toulouse, and was behind the creation of the city's Salle des Illustres in the Capitole in 1892.

Behind it all stands the Ournac family, winegrowers in Minervois since 1840 – today in the seventh and eighth generation. One of the plots still holds a Roman villa, a reminder that this land has been farmed since antiquity. It is siblings Camille and Fanély, together with their cousin Guillaume, who hold the pen now. Camille is a trained winemaker (œnologue) with experience from vineyards around the world, and it's he who carries the experimental spirit forward – new wines, new whims, every year.

Ournac Frères is one of three names from the same family. The other two – Château Cesseras and Domaine Coudoulet – show the more classic sides of the same hand.