For this tasting I review a wine from a small family-owned domaine in Provence, Domaine Les Grands Bois. Based in Sainte-Cecile-les-Vignes, a small town located in the heart of Provence, just a few kilometres north of Orange. The Besnardeau Family have named their attractive Cotes du Rhone Cuvee Les Trois Soeurs after their three daughters. I taste a half bottle of the 2023 vintage of this wine.
Domaine des Grands Bois has been in the family of current owners Mireille and Marc Besnardeau since 1920, when it was established by Albert Farjon, a farm worker. Albert’s 2 sons Albert and Robert followed him into the business and today his granddaughter Mireille and her husband run the estate. Mireille and Marc have had full control of the estate since 1994.
Today Domaine des Grands Bois has 47 hectares of vineyards, which are spread across 7 communes. Sainte-Cecile-les-Vignes, Lagarde Paréol, Suze-la-Rousse, Tulette, Travaillan, Cairenne and Rasteau. The vines are mostly planted on plateaus at around 130 metres above sea level. The vines grow swept by the Mistral wind, under the Provencal sun.
Marc had previously been a sommelier in a top Parisian Restaurant and knew the only future was in raising wine quality, while remaining true to the terroir. From 1998 the wines have been made in a new state of the art winery with gravity flow from reception to fermenter, from fermenter to press to the ageing tanks. Mireille and Marc restructured the vineyards, putting the vines on trellises to make mechanization easier. Their vineyards are certified as organic, they began conversion in 2008 and achieved certification in 2011. The couple have continued to increase their holdings with land purchases in both Cairanne and Rasteau. The increase in vineyard area requires them to further expand the winery as well. With the creation of new local appellations they are now also making wines from CDRV Sainte-Cecile and CDRV Suze-la-Rousse.
To find out more about this wine, its price and where to buy it go to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+les+grands+bois+cuvee+three+soeurs+cote+du+rhone+france/2023
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