Bandol blanc, Château Pibarnon - 2023

At the age of 50, Eric de Saint-Victor's parents, Henri and Catherine, fell in love with Pibarnon, at the time a small Bandolais estate of 3.5 hectares run by a man from the Italian Piedmont. We are in 1978 and the work that awaits the couple is not small. They had to remodel the vineyard, extend it, consolidate the terraces and perpetuate the cultivation of Mourvèdre plants anchored in the hard limestone. Let's remember that at that time, the Provence of wine was a bit like the Far West. Nearly 40 years later, the estate covers almost 50 hectares, half of which are vineyards, divided into multiple restanques (terraces) which form an aesthetic circus testifying to a beautiful stubbornness of civilisation. They cover the hillside on all sides, the furthest being one or two kilometres away. In the early 1990s, Eric de Saint-Victor joined his parents on the property, refining the tight but free style they had developed. After having somewhat abandoned the whole crop during the 2000s, he has been working more with the "rafle" in recent vintages, discussions with great Burgundian winemakers having no doubt contributed to this. The maturing process is still traditional, mainly in large oak tuns.