Grenache Roussanne

This wine is particularly well suited with richly spiced dishes, whether they be of Moroccan, Spanish, Indian or Asian origin.

The lion’s share of the estate is located in the Pech Redon area, meaning round hill. Its Triassic sandstone has miraculous attributes for growing vines. Its good drainage prevents standing water and therefore provides a natural barrier against disease. It has the ability to store up coolness in the subsoil so that vines never suffer from drought. These slightly acid soils produce wines with high minerality and very finely textured tannins. This is where our Roussanne is planted. Although Caves de Paris is only 500m away as the crow flies, it has Villafranchian soils. Distinctively Mediterranean in nature, it is home to compact clay which holds water in summer and pebbles that store up the sun’s heat and radiate it back by night. A naturally low-cropping site, it yields very powerful, rich, spicy wines with high tannin presence. Very good acidity means the wines are always fresh. Our Grenache blanc is planted here.

All our vines are harvested by hand and the fruit is sorted in the vineyard. The grapes are destemmed and transferred to the press using a conveyor belt. Light pressing at very low pressure is used. The juice is then cold settled and placed in casks. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation occurs in Burgundy casks previously used for 2 or 3 wines and the wines are racked five months later.

An array of soil types a dozen grape varieties and vineyard management revolving mainly around the bush vine training system – we are convinced that the way to maximise terroir expression is to blend all these components in our wines. We now have the hindsight to know exactly how our vines and the wines from our two major viticultural sites will perform allowing us to the push the boundaries in terms of expression and balance. The two extremely complementary soil types enable our bottlings to fully reveal themselves: the forcefulness of wines sourced from Villafranchian soils structures the finesse of those grown on sandstone creating a unique balance.