The Estate

Our Philosophy

Working with the soil to respect biodiversity has been a priority with us for more than 20 years. The major levers for our philosophy are respect for both microbial life and auxiliary fauna, while obtaining quality vines through sélection massale (visual selection of the most robust vine plants).
Perfectly ripe grapes are beautiful grapes. Tasting the grape berries on the vine determines the best date of harvest for each plot. The choice of this date is very important: it will give us 80% of the wine’s style.
Our goal is to obtain perfect ripeness, so as to have silky and delicate tannins in our red wines, and to keep the freshness of the fruit to give energy and balance to our white wines.
We seek to capture what the grape gives naturally, without forcing the potential of the terroir or the vintage. In keeping with this philosophy of respect for the vine, we do very little extraction, but work mainly on infusion, so that balance and vibrancy are gently encouraged, day after day during maceration.

«Wine is not meant to be smelled, but to be drunk,» said the late Henri Jayer.
A wine must have taste and body, and must give pleasure even in its youth, together with good ageing potential, from 5 to 30 years, depending on the vintage.
We make vins de bouche (fine wines), with real aromatic complexity and the true taste of their birthplace. Through delicate vinification (wine-making processes), we bring out the sensitivity of the fruit. The texture of terroir is obtained through long ageing in vats, which brings to each of the Domaine’s wines the specific taste of its origins.
As Jacky Rigaux wrote (2009): «The beautiful sensation of viscosity generated in the mouth by a local wine, its flexibility and consistency, combined with a racy natural vivacity, all work together give the texture of the wine its full dimension. A terroir wine, whether white or red, must offer a palate that evokes silk, velvet, taffeta, ... Even during their time in the barrel and their earliest days in the bottle, great terroir wines [...] have an unequalled texture. The length of the wine, which results from the harmonious combination of all these qualities, will be able to reveal the subtle aromas of the vintage, as well as its original touch of minerality. A terroir wine expresses its subtlety through its complexity. This finesse comes from the grape varieties that the winemakers have adapted to the climat, so that they reveal their full potential.
Complexity comes from the minerality that the plant expresses through the work of the winegrower, who creates the conditions for heaven and earth to transcend the genius of the vineyard. A living wine, a wine brimming over with the imprint of its terroir, in all its many facets! The taste and charm of a particular plot are completely unrelated to its potential superiority over another wine, but are nested in the depth and subtlety of its difference.»