Château Les Valentines
Not far from the picturesque towns of Nice and Saint-Tropez, the owners of Château Les Valentines, Gilles and Pascale Pons, produce wines that reflect the summery lightness and intense sensuality of the beautiful Provence countryside.
Ever since the two owners turned their backs on the IT industry in Paris in 1997, they have dedicated their hearts and souls to the wines of Château Les Valentines. The estate is more than a century old and was recently extended by a modern building. The château and one of its wines are named after the two children Valentin and Clémentine. The former owners were so-called grape growers who sold their grapes to the local cooperative for further processing.
Rosé wines from Château Les Valentines
from Château Les Valentines
from Château Les Valentines
Located above the vast bay by La Londe-les-Maures, in the AOC Côtes de Provence, 35 hectares are planted with Ecocert-certified organic Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tibouren, Rolle, Clairette and Ugni Blanc. These are old vines at an average age of 30 years. They produce rosé cuvées such as the elegant and mineral Château Les Valentines and Le Caprice de Clémentine, its fruity and delicate little brother. The Pons family vinify a total of 75% of their grapes into rosé wines, 20% into red wine and 5% into white wine.
The vines enjoy a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea and the offshore island Hyères. They grow right at the foot of the Massif des Maures, just a few kilometres from the beaches of the Côte d’Azur. It would seem that Gilles and Pascale have perfectly captured this spirit of yearning in a glass. Their wines embody the liquid essence of this landscape and the Mediterranean climate: more than 300 days of sunshine per year, a cool blowing mistral, the Mediterranean Sea, the mountains in the background and a barren, rocky soil form a unique terroir. These conditions result in relatively low yields, but provide a much higher quality. And you can taste it. Santé!
For more details on the winery, please visit www.lesvalentines.com.
Producer
Standish / Dan Standish
The Standish Wine company was founded in 1999 by Dan Standish. He started at that time with a small, family-owned plot of almost hundred-year-old Shiraz vines in the heart of the Barossa Valley, in the sub-region of Vine Vale. He is part of the sixth generation of immigrants who settled here in 1848. In his career, Dan Standish gained experience not only in his home country, but also in California, Spain and France. He is passionate about the great wines of the Rhône Valley.
Cantina Monti
Located at 550 meters above sea level, with extreme slopes, the Cantina Monti covers 4.7 hectares. The sloping soil does not allow mechanization in the vines, which includes nine different grape varieties. Every season, the Monti family immediately focuses on the production of superior quality wines, a quality also given by the very low yield in the vineyard.
Didier Joris
Didier Joris is a legendary figure in the Valais, where the history of wine would be unthinkable without him. He grew up in a farming family that initially concentrated on raising cattle. To this very day, Didier still raves about «his Queens», the Hérens fighting cows. It was only during the 1960s and 1970s that the Joris family began to terrace slopes to plant vines and cultivate vineyards.