Ventoux: six names to know
Château Pesquié Affable brothers Fred and Alex Chaudière are the third generation to run Château Pesquié, a sizeable traditional Provençale bastide property at the foot of Mont Ventoux. Their parents were pioneers of the Ventoux revolution, leaving the local co-op in 1989 to make their own wines. Back then there were fewer than 10 independent wineries; now there are nearly 140. At more than 100ha, Pesquié is the largest, and has just been certified organic. It has a highly differentiated range of bold, intense, attention-grabbing wines that express the various aspects of their high-altitude terroir. Its opulent whites and ageworthy reds are among the most impressive in Ventoux.
Château Unang Nestled at the end of the Nesque Valley near the pretty village of Malemort-duComtat lies the ancient Provençale residence of Château Unang, an imposing stone property with landscaped gardens surrounded by 100ha of land. Most is woodland, but 15ha on the slopes are planted to vines. It wasn’t always so impressive. In search of Grenache vineyards at altitude, James and Joanna King bought the estate in 2001, when, says James, ‘it looked nicer the further away you got from it’. Now it doubles as a film set. The whites and rosé are balanced and unforced, the reds concentrated, with a windswept elegance. Clos de Trias High in the hills near the fortified village of Le Barroux, the vibe at Even Bakke’s Clos de Trias is two parts Provence to one part Mad Max. Born in Colorado and raised by Norwegian parents in the US and Norway, he worked in various Californian wineries before buying the estate in 2007. His parcellated organic vineyards are grown on ancient Triassic soils and scale the mountainside to heights of 500m. Once vinified, he ages them for up to six years in old barrels
before release. He describes himself as a ‘post-industrial winemaker’, working as simply as possible to create idiosyncratic wines that are as vital as they are challenging, exploring umami, salt and acidity to electrifying effect.
Domaine de Fondrèche In the early 1990s, Sébastien Vincenti worked at Domaine Les Cailloux in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. He dreamed of establishing his own domaine, but vineyards in Châteauneuf were prohibitively expensive so he was forced to look further afield. When he was offered Domaine de Fondrèche in 1995 at the foot of Mont Ventoux, he didn’t hesitate. Today he makes some of the best pale rosés in the Rhône, but it’s his reds that really impress – sleek, polished, precise expressions of Ventoux terroir. The red, white and rosé in his Persia range all offer remarkable bang for buck. Marrenon A union of eight cooperative wineries, Marrenon is based in the Luberon Valley, in the heart of the regional natural park, and represents the work of 650 winemaking families. The quality of the wines is consistent despite its size. Managing director Philippe Tolleret explains: ‘ Whether you are a small estate or a big co-op, you have to know your vineyards.’ The union works closely with its suppliers to help them get the most from their land. ‘ In the past, they were farmers,’ says Tolleret, ‘and now they have learned to be wine-growers.’
St Jean du Barroux ‘ If you study geology, you can find great terroirs that are still unknown,’ says Philippe Gimel. In 2003, after working at Domaine de la Janasse and Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, his search led him to Le Barroux. He’s divided his vineyards into 99 plots, and can take a month to handpick at perfect ripeness – they’ve never yet been affected by rot. The largest bunches go into his earlydrinking cuvée; the smaller, more concentrated ones are for his bottlings designed to age. These have more stems in the ferments, but even they are sorted for quality. Gimel fizzes with excitement when he talks about his terroir. When you taste the wines, you see why. He creates thrillingly fluent and precise depictions of this fresh, wild, windswept terroir.