Bandol Domaine Lafran-Veyrolles

An estate with a superb terroir. The grapes are hand-picked, not destemmed, and crushed gently before going into fermentation vats for 15 to 21 days with temperature control. Next, the wine is matured in large oak barrels for 18 to 24 month. This results in a fine red wine with a powerful nose combining notes of spice and red fruit. It is ample and solid, rich in colour and structure, with very well-balanced tanins and good ageing potential. The Bandol white, made with the Clairette and Ugni blanc varieties, is just as flavoursome, releasing intense floral notes of heather. It goes ideally with grilled fish. The Bandol rosé, combining finesse and structure in the mouth, has notes of flowers, a fine, intense colour, great elegance and a very long finish on the palate. Remarkable value for money, limited quantities available, older vintages possible.

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Touraine Domaine de La Renaudie

They have been vine-growers for three generations; the great-grandfather, Albert Denis, set up the Domaine de la Renaudie in 1928. Since 1982, Bruno Denis has been running the estate. He is a perfectionist, thoroughly committed to his profession, and since he started making the wines, they have progressed steadily in quality. His wife, Patricia Denis, is a trained oenologist, but mainly deals with sales. The age of the vines (35 years on average) and the poor, shallow soils result in wines for laying down. The winery is a complex of buildings, each with its own specific role in the various stages of winemaking. The main, recently-built vinification winery is set apart and is equipped with stainless-steel vats and all the equipment required to turn grapes into wine and to control temperatures. The storage and ageing cellar has a capacity of 120,000 bottles and is also used to prepare orders, while a former cellar, which has been turned into a client reception, can hold up to 50 people. Several wines are most successful, such as the very fruity Touraine-les-Guinetières, the Touraine-Cabernet, a colourful, rich wine with silky tannins, aromas of raspberry and underwood, and the Tradition, rich and aromatic, with a powerful, lasting nose in which red fruit and spices stand out, a round, well-structured wine which is mellow in the mouth and which has excellent ageing capacity. The Touraine white, very typical of the Sauvignon, is fresh and fruity with characteristic notes of lime and dried fruit, combining roundness and aromatic freshness in the mouth - as does the rosé, Perle de Rosée.

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Château Cantenac

Nicole Roskam-Brunot, after studies of right and écomnomie regional to the university of Claret, has decided to devote entirely to its vineyard and to bring most attentive cares to vinificationet to soil, year watching to what the ground has all the oligo-necessary elements for its property. 12 hectares the continuation of the holy hillsides-émilionnais, dominating the valley of the Dordogne. It is composed 75% of black Merlot and 20% of Cabernet-Sauvignon. The terrain sablo-graveleux allows an excellent maturation of the grape. The wine is very elegant, marvellously bouqueté and fruity, a beautiful complexity and length in mouth. Nicole Roskam-Brunot, assisted of Frans Roskam, its technical counselor, mastery with fineness the breeding of the wine in casks. Deepen therefore on this Saint-Emilion GC, concentrate, balanced, to the tanins rich and silky, to the red deep, beautiful and promising evolution. It is necessary to add to the Castle Cantenac, the Mill Castle of Grenet and the Castle Jean Melin to Saint-Emilion, and its superb Selection Mrs, a supple wine, fruity, very charmer. Other novelty on the property: a rosy Sona, sensual and fruity.

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Chateau Redortier

Château Redortier, with 35 hectares of vines in virtually one single stretch, is particularly well placed, standing opposite the prestigious Dentelles de Montmirail. The estate is in the Côtes du Rhône Villages, Beaumes de Venise and Gigondas appellations all at the same time. The land is exceptional: the vines are planted at an altitude of 400m on south-facing hillsides which benefit from clay-limestone soils and a very dry summer season. The estate has kept its family character, with Etienne de Menthon working alongside his wife and their daughter Sabine. Château Redortier used to be a very important fortified castle which defended the principality of Orange. In 1956 Etienne de Menthon, an agronomist, restored the estate to its former condition. To respect the environment and to favour the natural character of the wine, the treatment of vine diseases is subject to reasonable methods. Yields are intentionally controlled at 30 to 35 hl/ha, resulting in quality wines. Harvesting is performed by hand so as not to alter the vines and bunches of grapes, enabling strict sorting procedures. Vinification is traditional, with the white obtained by pressing and the rosé by bleeding. For the reds, vatting varies from 8 to 10 days for the Beaumes de Venise and 15 days for the Gigondas. Pressing is light for all the wines and temperatures are controlled throughout fermentation. The reds spend two winters in vats before being bottled and the wines undergo very little physical treatment, in order to conserve all their aromas and their intrinsic quality. The wines do not mature in wood barrels, as the quality of the soils and vines is sufficient to give them a naturally woody character.

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Producteurs Plaimont

The Producteurs Plaimont are located in Saint-Mont in the Gers area, in the heart of Gascony. About a thousand vine-growers have committed themselves to producing high-quality grapes. They have chosen to work under the responsibility of harvesting commissions, viticultural technicians and ¦nologists who provide counselling and have written up strict specifications. The vine-growers respect tradition - harvesting by hand and removal of some bunches of grapes before they are ripe to ensure that the remaining grapes are better nourished by the vine. The Producteurs de Plaimont have air-conditioned winery facilities which contain 3,500 oak barrels. The range is a wide one: Côtes de Saint-Mont (VDQS) red, white and Rosé, selections of terroirs such as Les Hauts de Bergelle, les Vignes Retrouvées and Faîte.

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Bouvet-Ladubay

Founded in 1851 by Etienne Bouvet and taken over in 1932 by the Monmousseau family, whose descendant, Patrice Monmousseau, is the present Chairman. Our house has never ceased in its search for the best possible quality. Today, it is recognised as being one of the best in the whole of the Loire Valley. We have developed a varied approach to communication. Since1992, when Bouvet Ladubay bought back a former part of the company's heritage - 1,800 square metres of buildings, once the stables of an electricity production plant and the company theatre at the end of the last century - our communication policy has been developed around notions of creativity and culture. An art gallery: 3 or 4 exhibitions are held each year in the 800 m2 gallery under the artistic direction of Benoît Lemercier. Literature and Wine: Bouvet Ladubay is also the home of the National Wine and Literature Days. The management team is in charge of organising this national event which includes the awarding of 9 literary prizes and brings together a hundred authors and wine producers around the theme of Hedonism à la Française. The Art of Vin: over the last 150 years, it is wine which has certainly become the most famous of the arts which are celebrated here. 228 medals, diplomas and awards in the last 33 years, for the Bouvet LadubaySaumur Brut.

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Château de Chantegrive

Thanks to the patient reconstruction work carried out by Françoise and Henri Lévêque over the last 40 years, Château de Chantegrive has become a superb vineyard with excellent soils composed of a mixture of pebbles and fine sand on a clay-limestone structure. The vines are over 30 years old and are mostly planted on south-facing terraces and hilltops which provide excellent exposure to the sun and good ventilation - ideal for making quality wines. Château Chantegrive is managed by a pleasant family who are devoted to their profession, take the greatest care in their work and are attentive to the customer and the quality of the wines produced. "We like to produce elegant, top-quality wines with strong local character", says Françoise Lévêque. Their Caroline is a prestigious wine. We are quickly charmed by this rich, intense wine, matured in new barrels, with its lovely golden colour and intense, elegant nose of vanilla, fresh butter, lemon, griled almond and lime. The wine is smooth with a clean attack in the mouth dominated by fruit and flesh.

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