produced from old vines Grenache from vines from two parcels; one is Gramenon’s neighbour – the vines are 500m from Gramenon. The other is a parcel owned by Maxime’s Uncle. The neighbour’s vines are 40 years old and the Uncle’s are 80 year old. Hand harvested then fermented using a portion of whole bunches in concrete ‘cuve beton’. This wine was called ‘Pourpre’ until this release when he decided to change it to ‘Rubiconde’ – this reflects the fact that he feels that the wine is more red fruited than purple fruited!  As always it is very elegant with lovely grip and superb freshness. As with all Gramenon made wines the mouthfeel is superb with a lovely seamless quality. Glorious Grenache – pretty & floral – the epitome of Grenache’s elegance – this is Maxime’s La Mémé

South of Montelimar, where the A7 Autoroute passes the aptly named ‘Porte du Soleil’, the wine producing regions of the southern, or ‘Meridionale’ Rhône commence.  This is the gateway to Provence and the Mediterranean. It is in this very northern outpost where you will find one of the very best producers in the entire Rhône valley, Domaine Gramenon.

Gramenon produces some of my absolute favourite wines from the Southern Rhône from their bio dynamic vineyards way out in the North-Eastern part of the Côtes du Rhône, in fact they are in the department of the Drome, not the Vaucluse like nearly all others.

This original part of the domaine is located at 300 meters above sea level on a rare limestone bench.  Over the years the domaine has expanded to 25 hectares by planting more vines, purchasing 4.5 hectares of plots in Vinsobres in 1999, and land in nearby Valreas in 2007.  Today the estate is run by Michele Aubery and one of her children, son Maxime-Francois Laurent.