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2012 Bandol Rouge “Saint Ferréol”
Domaine de la Tour du BonAgnès Henry is a charming, easygoing woman, but her red Bandols are quite the opposite: these powerful, intensely structured beasts mean serious business. In the tiny village of Le Brûlat, her vineyards lie at the northern extreme of the coastal Bandol appellation, where maritime influence is ever-so-slightly mitigated. Coupled with the heavy red clay soils that make up the area, this gives her wines a correspondingly bigger, brawnier character than in your average big, brawny Bandol. This is especially true for the cuvée Saint Ferréol, which showcases Mourvèdre in its most rustic, gnarly form. Earthy notes of leather, game, and black fruit, along with a fresh, grippy finish, make this chewy red perfect for winter meals and worthy of a place in your cellar.
—Anthony Lynch
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2012 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | 90% Mourvèdre, 10% Carignan |
Appellation: | Bandol |
Country: | France |
Region: | Provence |
Producer: | Domaine de la Tour du Bon |
Winemaker: | Hocquard-Henry Family |
Soil: | Clay, Limestone, Silt, Sandstone |
Aging: | Wines age in foudres for 18 months before bottling |
Farming: | Organic (practicing) |
Alcohol: | 14.5% |
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About The Producer
Domaine de la Tour du Bon
About The Region
Provence
Perhaps there is no region more closely aligned with the history to Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant than Provence. Provence is where Richard Olney, an American ex-pat and friend of Alice Waters, lived, and introduced Kermit to the great producers of Provence, most importantly Domaine Tempier of Bandol. Kermit also spends upwards of half his year at his home in a small town just outside of Bandol.
Vitis vinifera first arrived in France via Provence, landing in the modern day port city of Marseille in the 6th century BC. The influence of terroir on Provençal wines goes well beyond soil types. The herbs from the pervasive scrubland, often referred to as garrigue, as well as the mistral—a cold, drying wind from the northwest that helps keep the vines free of disease—play a significant role in the final quality of the grapes. Two more elements—the seemingly ever-present sun and cooling saline breezes from the Mediterranean—lend their hand in creating a long growing season that result in grapes that are ripe but with good acidity.
Rosé is arguably the most well known type of wine from Provence, but the red wines, particularly from Bandol, possess a great depth of character and ability to age. The white wines of Cassis and Bandol offer complexity and ideal pairings for the sea-influenced cuisine. Mourvèdre reigns king for red grapes, and similar to the Languedoc and Rhône, Grenache, Cinsault, Marsanne, Clairette, Rolle, Ugni Blanc among many other grape varieties are planted.
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Kermit once said...
Kermit once said...
For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.