Domaine Abbaye De Pierredon

Back in 2005 Lorenzo Pellicioli fell in love with the 13^th century abbey tucked away in the heart of the Baux de Provence and the Provencal landscape of fifteen hundreds acres of forest and lavender fields surrounding the estate.

He planted twenty-five acres of vines, cultivated like an organic garden with the help of Antoine Durbach, winemaker at the nearby famous Domaine de Trevallon to assist him with the winemaking and the tending of the fifteen parcels.

The parcels are planted with the traditional Provencal varietals such as Rolle, Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah but also Merlot, Cabernet-sauvignon and Sauvignon blanc that are quite well adapted to the clay-limestone soil present in the area.

The production is small and the yields are kept low to produce intensely flavored wines such as their Cabernet-Syrah blend Vespro, the quite unique Sauvignon blanc cuvée harvested at night to keep all its freshness and the delicate Donna Rosa rosé wine.

Philosophy

The philosophy is organic farming (helped by the strong Mistral wind that protects naturally from most diseases in the vineyards) and only plants based concoctions are applied to the vines following a lunar calendar.

Grapes are hand harvested, at night for the white varietals, in small crates and sorted out to keep only the ripe ones. The white and rosé grapes are immediately gentle pressed and fermented at cold temperature to preserve all the aromas.

The red grapes undergo a longer fermentation of about three weeks in temperature- controlled vats with daily pump over.

Special attention is given not to extract too much tannins and the winery is set to allow gravity to do much of the work.

Combined with a state of the art winery, Abbaye de Pierredon is well-equipped to produce some of the best wines in Provence.

The red wines are the largest production with about 2,000 cases produced yearly between the Merlot and the cuvee Cabernet-Syrah Vespro.

The cuvee Ultima Laude, a rolle based wine is a pure expression of the flavors of the grapes, from grapefruit in its youth to almonds and honey as it matures.

The Donna Rosa rosé cuvee is a blend of Syrah, Grenache, Rolle and Cinsault. The freshness of the Rolle and the cinsault complement nicely the Grenache voluptuousness and the depth of the Syrah.

The atypical Sauvignon blanc cuvee exults a purity and a minerality rarely found outside the Loire Valley.

The cuvee Vespro combines the silkiness of the Syrah with the structure of the Cabernet, spiciness with delicate well-fused tannins wine.

The Merlot cuvée is surprising by its freshness and complexity.