Its been 15 years since Sean and Caro Feely bought their run down (back then) winery on the slopes of the Saussignac commune - nestled between Monbazillac and St Emilion. It was a high volume but low price producing chateau with 25,000 bottles of wine being sold. Given the soil and the height (Chateau Feely sits atop a hill with views back to the Dordogne valley) Sean and Caroline knew they could produce good premium wine if they were to reduce production and to focus on quality not quantity.
They had originally planned to find a wine farm in their native SA but when Caroline was transferred to Dublin by her employees they set their sights on France and began the search for an affordable chateau to acquire. The year was 2005 and the adventure was just beginning. Several books on their journey later, various wine courses and a sharp reduction in quantity of output has led them to 2020 and even though the world is having a year off from anything their sales are ever more robust. Part of the reason for this is their focus on smaller wine merchants, restaurants and direct sales to consumers. So generally Feely wine is sort of hard to find unless you go directly to their website and order online or you are lucky enough to find a bottle or two in a favourite restaurant. It's well worth looking for! Better still book into one of the two delightful little cottages on the winery - the wine lodge for 4 people or the wine cottage for 2 and then you don't have to go anywhere!
So please enjoy this 45 minute chat with Caroline Feely as she prepared for another full day of curious visitors and the early start of the 2020 harvest. When they bought Feely the harvest pretty much started around September 20. Nowadays the harvest is well over by then. The 2020 harvest started around the 20th August so a sad indication of global warming.
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