DOMAINE DE LA DOURBIE

In the vineyard, respect for the soil, the vine, and its ecosystem requires constant vigilance. The team remains very attentive to limiting inputs and strengthening the soils and the plant as much as possible against disease pressure and climatic hazards. This overall approach mobilizes the varied skills of specialists in the vine and its environment. In the cellar, the same meticulousness governs precise vinifications and refined aging, in wooden vats, stainless steel tanks, or sandstone ovoids. Again, time is dedicated to perfecting a know-how to affirm and refine the La Dourbie style: fresh and light, fine and complex. The wines are both resolutely Languedoc, deeply different, delicate, and authentic. The estate’s wines come from three distinct but equally unique terroirs. The first, original one: the twenty hectares of La Dourbie. Ancestral grape varieties share the vineyard in one continuous plot around the house, producing odes to Terret Blanc, Cinsault, and Carignan (with a bit of Syrah too) in red and rosé. The second, on the Aspiran terroir, is a gem of 1.8 hectares of Terret Blanc, nestled in the black basaltic tuff soils that cover the slopes of an extinct volcano. The third, on the heights of Vendémian, covers 12 hectares of a vineyard located at the end of the mystical Rouveyrolles valley, at an altitude of 350 meters, in the heart of the garrigue. This exceptional site has been spared by the century's whims, and the old vines of Cinsault (planted in 1952-1953) and Grenache Gris and Blanc (planted in 1968-1969) thrive majestically, facing northwest. They benefit from the generous afternoon sun as well as the coolness of the evening, which falls early and quickly in this magical, end-of-the-world-like place.