Sylvain Fadat, whose father was a renowned ornithologist, is an avid hunter of bécasses. He is also a joyful and generous chasseur, and will invite you to join him as he pursues these woodcock and the elusive palombes—wood pigeons—preferably in November, though October will do if you can’t wait. There is no better time of year than autumn to visit Sylvain and his wife Désirée, of Domaine d’Aupilhac. The stress of the grape-growing season and harvest has subsided. All traces of the summer’s heat have vanished and Montpeyroux is at its most serene and beautiful.
     Whether you join Sylvain on one of his chasse outings, or you just go for a tour of his vines, you cannot come away from his slice of the Languedoc without becoming a convert, both to the energy of his Montpeyroux vineyard land and to the class of his wines.
     You would start at his domaine in the quaint village of Montpeyroux. From there, you drive alongside his original vineyard holdings, right outside of town. Then, Sylvain will take you high up the hill to his relatively newer holdings: the awe-inspiring, volcanic amphitheater called Les Cocalières, whose soil is made up of basalt, raw limestone, and marine fossils. He might tell you, in his baritone Languedocien accent, how he created this vinous Eden over years of backbreaking labor. Aside from the Roussanne, Rolle (Vermentino), Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre vines, which he started planting in 1999 and farms organically, Les Cocalières is completely covered with wild aromatic herbs and teeming with wildlife.
     While you’re up there, you can’t help but wonder how it could get better than this, and—even though he is revered among the French—how Sylvain still flies relatively under the radar. You realize this is only because he is a vigneron in Montpeyroux, not Meursault, the Médoc, or Morgon. And yet, with a taste of each of these four wines, you’ll sense that Sylvain is as talented as anyone working in France today.