Our Tasting Note: A deep youthful ruby red core, vibrant red edges. The aromas rose from the glass easily, fresh and savory dark red and black fruits, mixed roasted garden herbs and spices, garrigue, and roasted meats! Shockingly drinkable now, this was medium to full bodied, med/med + tannin, with a pronounced palate showing gorgeous black raspberry, bing cherry, and blackberry fruit integrated with the spices and garrigue. A long, savory, and fruit laden finish. Fun, correct for the grape and appellation, and delicious!

SOIL TYPE: Calciferous sandstone, Sandy marl, fossil-rich (rudist) limestone
VARIETAL: 85% Mourvèdre, 15% Grenache Noir, 5% Syrah
CULTURE: Organic Certified for the 2022 vintage. No chemicals, pesticides, or phytosanitary products. Traditional ploughing of the soil.
VINIFICATION: Hand harvesting with sorting. 80% destemmed. Fermentation and maceration with native yeasts during 3 to 4 weeks. Ageing in large oak “foudre” for 18 months. Additional 2 years maturation in their climate control cellar.

The Winery

The domaine was purchased in the 1870s by Michel’s great-grandfather, who was a renowned sea captain–he sold his famous ship, the “Malabar,” when he retired, and used the proceeds to acquire what would become the family estate. Since then, although the family has always had outside pursuits–current winemaker Michel Vidal was previously the managing director of a real estate firm and a lawyer, and his mother was a member of the Académie Française who published a book of poems under the pen name “Claude Maubernard”–they have all always been directly involved with the running of the estate. Today, Michel focuses on the winery full-time.

The property extends along a gentle slope down to the Gulf of Lecques, where the climate is particularly mild and breezy in the summer. Soils are calcareous clay and very stony, including slabs of calcified sandstone and shell-rich limestone. All of the vineyard parcels are facing the sea, the perfect position for Mourvèdre, the “noble” grape of the appellation. Mourvèdre is a late-ripening red grape, considered difficult to grow because it’s fragile. It needs plenty of heat to attain full ripeness, so it benefits from the perfect alchemy of the stony soils, the sun, and the maritime climate.

Michel runs the domaine in the style of “vin nature,” as he puts it. Beyond being certified organic, they’ve never used glyphosate, and they try to use only half of the permitted dose of copper per year. Yields are restricted to ensure quality. Winemaking balances tradition with modernity: the philosophy is to produce wines with native yeasts, and to allow them to develop while keeping an eye on fermentation temperatures and doing pumpovers in their newly modernized cellar. The goal is to produce “wines of character.”

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Bandol
Oriented south, facing the Mediterranean Sea and touching the base of the chain of mountain of the Sainte Baume, Bandol offers a natural amphitheater where vines are planted in “Restanques” (local word for terraces) made of a mix of sandstone, that provides the bright and lively character of the youth, and clay-marl, that provide strengths and longevity. The Mediterranean climate of Provence with its 3,000 hours of sun per year combined with the immediate proximity to the sea, that temperate the arid climate, allow an optimum maturity of the local iconic grape Mourvèdre. Mourvedre's stunning ability to age has placed Bandol into the pantheon of the “Grand Cru” of France. To reveal its best potential an aging in oak barrels of a minimum of 18 months is imposed by law in order to polish this intensively structured wine.

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