Just north of Montpellier, at the base of one of southern France’s most iconic formations, lies the sleepy medieval village of Saint-Mathieu-de-Tréviers—population 5,000. Over the last thirty years, the three Ravaille brothers have helped turn this area into one of the most exciting sites for forward-thinking viticulture in France.
     Rewind to 1992, when brothers Jean-Marc, Xavier, and Pierre took over the family domaine in the shadow of Pic Saint Loup. They made two brave decisions almost immediately: to make wine from their own grapes rather than sell them to the local cave coopérative, and to pursue organic and biodynamic farming. “We wanted to be able to pick a bunch of grapes and eat them right there on the spot,” Pierre Ravaille tells me, “without having to wash off any product residues that might have remained on the skins.” This was brave, because the Ravailles’ home turf is humid and receives a lot of rainfall and the Mistral doesn’t blow as strong—i.e., it doesn’t wick away as much moisture and help as much with disease pressure—in Pic Saint Loup as it does in the nearby Rhône Valley. During the first few years of biodynamic conversion, Pierre says, “the vines lost vigor and became highly susceptible to disease. It is a phase where one must not lose heart; it takes five to six years to achieve stable yields and for the vines to build up a natural resistance to disease.” If you can persist, though, the payoff is more than worth the struggle. What’s more, the same terroir features that once posed challenges have become strengths, yielding reds of incredible freshness and finesse.
     I’ve always marveled that this business, led by three brothers, has thrived so long, but when you look at the decades-long harmony they’ve formed not just with each other, but with their vines and ecosystem, it shouldn’t come as a surprise after all. Redolent of black cherries, tapenade, and herbs, this stony and savory rouge is a beautiful testament to this corner of the south!

** Use coupon code PICSAINTLOUP20 at checkout to save 20% during the month of May. **

I don’t know about you, but whenever my favorite bands or musicians appear on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, I can’t resist watching. The physical constraints of the office space force them to reimagine their songs, but what the musicians sacrifice in technological oomph, they add back in other creative ways. For example, while Bad Bunny’s studio and Super Bowl renditions of “VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR” feature pulsing synths and digital snare drums, his Tiny Desk performance swaps these out for a piano, acoustic guitars, and bongos—the kind of instruments you’d picture him playing with friends in an intimate backyard party in Puerto Rico.
     You might think of the 2024 vintage as the Beaujolais’ Tiny Desk Concert rather than its Super Bowl. These wines might not overpower you with the amps, light shows, and special effects of other recent, solar vintages, but they can still dazzle and charm you in other creative, elegant, and intimate ways.

The Quenard family’s long history in the Savoie doesn’t begin with André, but his arrival at the domaine in 1944 marks a turning point in the family’s legacy. When André took over their polyculture farm in the village of Chignin, the wines were still sold only by the barrel to café owners. Around 1960, with a deep-seated belief in the quality of his terroir—before Chignin’s AOC designation in 1976—he began bottling his own wines, championing the steep scree slopes of Torméry, and helping to establish the reputation of an entire winegrowing region along the way. By 1976, his son Michel arrived, and as a duo they were unstoppable, finessing their vineyard work, expanding their holdings, and fine-tuning every detail to produce perfumed and textured whites, robust and nuanced reds. Thirty years later, Michel’s son Guillaume joined the adventure, and for fifteen years the three men worked side-by-side, in whichever ways their various skills permitted. In March of this year, André passed away at the age of ninety-eight. Looking at photos of him harvesting his beloved Bergeron vines well into his silver years, it’s easy to see joy radiating from behind his kind gaze and to glean a sense of fulfillment due, at least in part, to a métier he was so passionate about.