WWOOFing at Domaine Baillat | Love that Languedoc

WWOOFing at Domaine Baillat – Love That Languedoc episode 56

I visited Christian Baillat in the Corbieres who makes some excellent natural wines. He also gave his wwoofers a chance to appear in the episode, and we talk a little about this unique way to travel the world and experience agricultural lifestyles.

The wine is really great and I explore a side of the Corbieres that we haven’t really seen on the blog yet. It’s a rustic setting, but no rusticity in the wine. Instead of playing on those barnyard qualities, there’s some smooth red fruit and a good bit of structure. I could easily confuse some of his top cuvées with wine from my own area in the Cabardes.

And Christian Baillat is a cool guy with a sort of spiritualist, hippy vibe to him. He believes in natural winemaking and treating the plants with the respect that every living organism deserves. I don’t think he’s certified biodynamic, but he sounds like he believes in that fanatical level of micromanagement with a pince of magic. He treats his vineyard more like a native-plant garden than a monoculture.

If you want a taste of the life of a winemaker, wwoofing is a very interesting way to do it. You volunteer to work for a little less than full time and you get lodged and fed and wined. And then you have time to visit the countryside or go to town ocassionally. It’s really neat. Look it up. Or email me about it. WWOOFing is technically an organic program and only works with certifiied organic growers. If you don’t care about organic or have other specifications, you should email me and I’ll put you in touch with people who like to do this kind of thing.

I apologize for how slow things have been on the site. To explain briefly, the website is way more popular than I had ever expected. THANK YOU FOR VISITING AND MAKING THAT TRUE. We just hit our 10,000th view last week, and I am grateful for every single one of your clicks and minutes spent on the site. However, I am hitting some of the limits on the free accounts at pages like http://blip.tv and now I need to figure out a way to expand. Stay tuned. Things will only get bigger and better. And thanks for your patience and thanks for liking this website and for loving that languedoc!

Tags: aude, baillat, christian baillat, corbiere, corbières, domaine baillat, English, languedoc, woofing, WWOOF, wwoofing

English | Ryan O'Connell March 18, 2010

8 Comments

By Bernard Caille, March 18, 2010 @ 1:39 pm

Ryan
You need to speak to the Sud de France people and Mr Freche to get some funding to help you run the website.
This is the best value publicity they can for the money.
I think you’re doing a great job for the region and surely someone needs recognise this.
Bernard
By Ryan O'Connell, March 18, 2010 @ 10:42 pm

Thanks for your support, Bernard! We will see if he’s in a good mood once he mops up in the elections this week
By Luke Saunders, March 23, 2010 @ 6:22 am

Ryan,

Another great video!

After subscribing to WWOOF France in January, my girlfriend and I have not had any luck finding a host for this July and August, and in most cases, we are not getting replies to our e-mails.

I assume that our timing is bad – July and August likely being the months with the greatest demand for WOOFing hosts… Instead, we are hoping to find work while travelling through the region in May and June.

We have an apartment rented in Corbieres for the week of June 9-16, with a couple of days on either side to explore surrounding areas. Perhaps I will take you up on your offer to get in contact with wineries not yet in the WWOOFing system, or maybe even stop by your winery?

Keep up the good work!

Luke
Fredericton, NB, Canada
By Ryan O'Connell, March 23, 2010 @ 10:07 am

@Luke I’ll get back to you when I’m back from my Catalunya trip this weekend. We’ll try to hook you up. Most wooffers are looking for a longish commitment though so we’ll need to talk about dates. I’m not sure if you want a couple weeks or a few days. We’ll see!
By Kathy, March 25, 2010 @ 7:43 am

Hey Ryan, thanks for your posting. I would like to learn more about your WWOOFing experience at Baillot. Let me know how I can email you?
By Ryan O'Connell, March 25, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

@Kathy, no problem. ryan@ovineyards.com