Alpilles wines: the energy of the rock

On peut s’y promener des heures sans croiser personne. Comme la montagne d’Ayers Rock en Australie, les Alpilles ont quelque chose de mystérieux et de magnétique, elles murmurent dans le vent, vous appellent et donnent envie de se perdre le long de leurs falaises et sur leurs crêtes, d’où l’on aperçoit au loin la Camargue. Ici plus qu’ailleurs, la vigne se mêle à la végétation. Surtout, elle possède le pouvoir de capter les parfums de la nature, la pruine cireuse et poudreuse qui recouvre la peau des raisins fixant toutes les molécules qui flottent dans l’air, provenant de la garrigue, de l’olivier, du figuier et du fenouil sauvage. Lorsque l’on boit les vins des meilleurs vignerons de la région, on a le sentiment d’avoir en bouche une photographie du lieu, avec ses cyprès que le mistral fait onduler et sa lumière hypnotique, celle-là même que Van Gogh s’était acharné à restituer sur ses 150 toiles peintes à Saint-Rémy-de-Provence entre 1889 et 1890. Il y a trente ans, les Alpilles étaient un Saint-Tropez sans la mer: toutes les stars du showbiz y avaient leur villa. Aujourd’hui que la mode est passée, il reste l’essentiel : des vignerons passionnés qui façonnent quelques-uns des plus beaux vins de Méditerranée.

Dominique Hauvette: the heroine of the West West

She is the great lady of the Alpilles, an extraordinary character and one of the best winegrowers in France.When she started thirty years ago, she had to fight to survive.Today, we can only have our wines on allowance.Every morning, it's the same ritual: before she even takes her tea, she comes out of her mobile home, contemplates the Alpilles, will speak to her 46 horsepower, made thirty minutes of yoga, and listen to the "stabat mater"Pergolèse.Dominique is a mystical in the wild, like Rimbaud.Born in Val-d'Isère, she had first taught skier alongside her friend Jean-Claude Killy, before becoming herself a instructor.In 1980, she discovered Provence, felt good there, and decided to stay there.To live, she gets a building painter.His father buys a mas near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, with 2 hectares of vines.Dominique agrees to deal with it and produced his first wine in 1989.It's love at first sight.The earth speaks to him: "In Val-d'Isère, I was nourished by the mineral.Here in the Alpilles, I feel the energy of the rock.Because for her, who studied quantum physics and the relationship between matter and light, everything is energy in the universe.From the earth to the plant and from the plant to the man, the energy flows and goes through the wine.

His gives the impression of circulating, with a fleshy and bright middle of the mouth.By drinking it, we feel all the natural freshness of the grapes which stored in him the perfumes of other plants.Because it is for her a certainty: "The plants communicate with each other and feed each other."Dominique Hauvette spends his time observing nature and his cycles and very early converted to biodynamics:" My vines are stronger than those of my neighbors, and I never have a mildiou.Why?Because I will see them every day, and I anticipate the appearance of diseases at the right time, spraying, if necessary, sage and nettle herbal teas.»»»»

A graduate of oenology from the Faculty of Montpellier, she is not the type to let her natural wines and little charged in sulfur transformed into nauseating vinegars (as was long in certain fashionable Parisian bistros!).Very rigorous, she knows the interactions between yeasts, bacteria and minerals perfectly, all this mysterious alchemy of the living at work during fermentation, that you have to know how to master in the cellar to avoid obtaining winesthat smell the stable.To exalt the purity of the fruit and the intensity of the mineral, Hauvette was also one of the first to abandon oak barrels (which according to her make up wines) and to use natural cement eggs (without chemical residues), real giant amphorae built according to the golden number and the balance of yin (limestone) and yang (silica).In his cellar built with the stone of the Pont du Gard, a hatch thus raises all his wines in 28 eggs, like a mother hen...

Rich and iodized, its white has notes of citrus and fennel (40 euros).Its rosé full of Cinsault -based force can be kept fifteen years (25 euros).Its red Corneline Cuvée has the spicy finesse of the greatest wines in Burgundy (34 euros).Confidential, its Comendium cuvée, based on gruff grapes, is a sublime meditation wine (70 euros).

Domaine de Trévallon: the artist

In the rankings of the hundred largest red wines in the world are still those of Trévallon, which have been the legendary of Alpilles for forty years for forty years.The creator of this heavenly area where everything is beautiful and harmonious, from the garden to the chais in step by the label of the bottles, is Éloi Dürrbach.At the start, however, nothing predestined this student at the Fine Arts in Paris to become one of the most famous vineyards in France.His parents were artists close to Giono, Picasso and Albert Gleizes.

In the atmosphere of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés according to 1968, far from long hair, militates against consumer society and dreams of going to live in Provence, against the advice of his father, who does not support the'Idea that his son stops his studies.In 1973, he decided to make wine here in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès, in the place called Trévallon, on the northern slope of the Alpilles.He does not have a penny, puts his bottles in a hutch, and collides with the prejudice of the time according to which the wines of Provence have no nobility...By studying old agronomy books, Etments discovers that the very unknown terroir of the Alpilles is potentially of very high quality, and that by planting Cabernet-Sauvignon (Roi de Bordeaux grape) and Syrah in equal quantities, wecan produce superb structured and velvety wines there...Bingo!

We tear our bottles all over the world

Since its first vintage in 1976, its formula has not changed, and more than ever, you are tearing up its bottles all over the world (even in the United States, despite the 25%Trump tax)..."Make wine is easy," said this Provençal and good alive gentleman, who seems to have never known anxiety, the hardest part is having beautiful grapes.»»"For him, more than technique, it is the sensitivity that prevails: Dominique Hauvette remembers having cried when he saw Et Éloi Dürrbach caress his vines...These have been cultivated in organic since the beginning and form a multitude of plots immersed in the garrigue where sheep graze, which makes him say that in Trévallon "there is more nature than culture"»».We never tire of smelling and chewing these delicious and delicious red wines which exhale notes of wild mature (70 euros).Rarer (only 8000 bottles), white has been created after years of trial and error.What a depth!Blind, we believe we are enjoying a big Burgundy (90 euros).

But Trévallon is also a family story, since his father, René Dürrbach, born in 1910, drew around forty labels for the bottles of the domain in the cubist spirit that was his.In recent years, Éloi has passed the relay to his daughter Ostiane and her son Antoine, of great sensitivity, who learned wine in South Africa before returning to Trévallon."Our father, who has traced his way on his own, transmitted his strength to us, based on self -confidence and in the living," says Ostiane.We plant vines for future generations.»»»»

The Mas of the Lady: the ancestor

In 1889, Van Gogh discovered this site with a cosmic beauty and painted on the spot the mas of the lady emerging in the middle of the cypresses twisted by the Mistral.This ancient domain already existed from Nostradamus time (born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in 1503), which mentions it in one of its predictions announcing the end of the world: "The sea will cover the earth and stop at the steleMas of the Lady. »»»» Depuis 1995, cette terre généreuse est cultivée par deux sœurs, Caroline Missoffe et Anne Poniatowski, qui, dans une autre vie, étaient journalistes (à « Vogue »»»» et « Challenges »»»»). « Les Parisiennes »»»», comme on les surnommait ici, sont devenues avec le temps d’authentiques Provençales, puisque la première est aujourd’hui présidente de l’AOP Les Baux-de-Provence (qui regroupe 11 domaines, dont 10 certifiés en agriculture biologique) et que la seconde a été élue maire des Baux-de-Provence en mars 2020...

At the start, the novice sisters were helped by the Cornas winemaker Jean-Luc Colombo, who taught them the fundamentals of wine.Today, they have found their style, solar and spicy."Between the south and the north of the Alpilles, there are 4 degrees apart!Caroline tells us.We fear the heat wave and the lack of water. »»»» Mais le mistral nettoie les vignes, c’est une terre bénie des dieux, propice à la viticulture biologique.Certified organic since 2003, the Mas de la Lady is above all the oldest domain in the Alpilles.It was Robert Faye, the grandfather of Anne and Caroline, who had developed and made her famous after 1945, in synergy with the legendary restaurant L'Ostau de Baumière who made his wines known.

The stele (10 euros), based on Rolle and Roussanne, is a pretty summer white, lively and fresh, with notes of anise and rosemary, ideal for accompanying a grilled bar at Aïoli.The Mas rosé (9.20 euros), slowly pressed, is nervous and round, with a strawberry taste.Delicious on a tomato pie.The hidden corner (23 euros) is the most interesting cuvée, a red from old grenache vines planted on a light plot nestled in the middle of the rocks.We feel the port and the candied cherry.To serve with a leg of the Alpilles! MASDELADAME.com.

René Milan: the gifted

Born in 1990, this is the new Zidane des Alpilles.After wanting to be a footballer, René Milan turns 19 years old towards the hotel industry, and discovers the eno-logy that fascinates him.He works for the Romanin castle, the famous Baux-de-Provence estate.In 2016, his father helps him plant a few hectares of vines near Dominique Hauvette, whom he admires.Following his advice, he adopts the principles of biodynamics: cow dung in horns buried under the ground, in the spring, in order to encourage the roots of the vines to seek their food in depth, decoctions of horsetail and camo-thousandto help them fight against stress due to heat wave... « Le résultat a été foudroyant: mes vignes sont plus résistantes aux maladies!»»»» Mais René Milan est allé plus loin.Thanks to the Italian agronomist Marco Simonit, he learned to cut the vineyard: "In France, size is made as mutilation, while it is the most important act of viticulture.A good size allows the sap to circulate well.The plant thus gains in force. »»»» Ses vignes aérées ressemblent à des chandeliers, avec des grappes non collées les unes aux autres.

Read.In the Rhône valley, the winegrowers have the coast

Result: the wine is more concentrated, richer, more tasty!Without the penny, and failing to have a cellar, he raises his nectars in his garage. Tellement frais et délicieux que Jean-André Charial, propriétaire de L’Oustau de Baumanière, lui a commandé pour son restaurant trois étoiles au « Michelin »»»» une cuvée spéciale de vin blanc à la fraîcheur de pamplemousse.Its red based on Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Merlot is.As for its rosé, salin and crunchy, it is a gluttony.15 euros per bottle in three colors.