IGP Alpilles: Domaine de Trévallon 2014
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"Not too dissimilar from the 2013 in overall weight and richness, yet in a more forward, charming style, the 2014 Coteaux d'Aix en Provence Alpilles offers a beautiful perfume of kirsch and currant fruits, Provençal herbs, cedary spices, and dried earth. Medium-bodied, silky, seamless and beautifully pure on the palate, it has light tannin, no hard edges, and impeccable balance. I love it today, and while it’s not going to be the longest-lived vintage of this wine, it should keep for another 8-10 years easily, and I suspect have a gradual decline. 92/100."
Jeb Dunnuck - JebDunnuck.com
It is a difficult wine to describe and it is hard to improve on this by Clive Coates from a 2000 edition of his specialist wine magazine 'The Vine': "Splendidly coloured. Impressively concentrated. Structured without being brutally solid. Balanced and complex... And the flavours? Blackberry and blackcurrant, cedary and almost sweet in its richness, with an aspect of roasted wild Provençal herbs. It is a wine of the garrigues; it is a wine of uncompromising personality; and, like its origins, it is a wine of no half measures. There is danger here. There is excitement. There is passion."
| Style | Red Wine, Sec, Full-bodied, Non Sparkling |
|---|---|
| Wine Region | Provence, Coteaux des Baux |
| Grape Variety (Cépage) | Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah |
| Viticulture | Non-Organic |
| Vintage | 2014 |
| Cellarage | Drink to 2030. |
| Vinification | Low yields (25-30 hl/ha) and no chemicals give thick-skinned grapes that need 2 to 3 weeks cuvaison. The parcels of grapes are allowed a warm fermentation, using only indigenous yeasts, in small oak foudres where they rest for 18 months before an unfiltered, unfined assemblage and eventual bottling, 25 months after the harvest. |
| Alcohol By Volume (%) | 13 |
Domaine de Trévallon
Visionary winemaker Eloi Dürrbach boldly quit his Paris architecture practice in 1973 to plant locally maverick grape varieties around the family property at Les Baux where the world renowned Domaine de Trévallon now stands, in a Provençal backwater between Arles and Aix. Early experiments with locally favoured grape varieties such as Grenache and Carignan failed but the less traditional combination of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah proved an incredible success. Domaine de Trévallon has been firmly embraced by the wine firmament.
The wine has always proved problematic for the authorities proving too unique to easily categorise and it has never sat comfortably in the official classification of France's governing I.N.A.O. Today Trévallon is labelled as a humble IGP Alpilles, a status that belies its international following but does not seemingly trouble its creator and custodian and it is now to be found on the world's finest wine lists. Red Trévallon has similarities in structure and finesse to some of the finer wines of the Médoc whilst there is an obvious resonance with the dense, dark wines of the Northern Rhône, the whole interspersed with an untamed Provençal character of its own. White Trévallon can be likened to a hybrid of white Hermitage and fine white Côtes de Beaune and is approachable from bottling but can age well for at least a decade.
Eloi Dürrbach was Picasso's godson, of whom his father was a friend and contemporary. Monsieur Dürrbach senior designed the current series of bold cubist labels. Visionary founder Eloi Dürrbach’s sudden death in November 2021 was very sad news that rocked the world of wine, but his daughter Ostiane who had worked alongside her father for a decade is a steady hand who has found her own voice.
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