LE RETOUR

There's a very good introduction to this domaine 'Les Deux Cols: Two and a half Irishmen - How a group of three Dublin-based wine lovers started a rising-star Rhône vineyard.'by Raymond Blake in the World of Fine Wine, but briefly, this is a story of three friends from Ireland (OK, one from France via Ireland), deciding to pursue their dream of making wine in the Rhône.

Although described now as up 'and coming', this is a bit like overnight success in the music business - coming after many years of hard graft. Charles Derain and Simon Tyrrell, joined by Gerard Maguire five years later, kicked this off in 2012, but even that was after Simon had done his vineyard management and winemaking course at Plumpton. They began by buying grapes and making their wines in a small corner of the enormous co-op at Estézargues, and admit that it was all fairly primitive.

By 2016, with a much better understanding of the geography and the different terroirs, they began looking for vineyards in this northerly corner of the Gard, where, they were convinced, they would be able to make the wines they wanted to produce. As it seems with everything else, the holdings were put together the hard way, not buying an existing domaine, but small parcels of vines that they judged to be exactly right for them. It took until the beginning of 2020 to reach the current 12 hectares.

The vineyards are closed in by woodland to the south, east and west, but open to the Mistral from the north, which helps to cool and dry the vines. The estate is farmed organically and all the grapes are hand-harvested.

After much eating of grapes to determine the balance of acidity, sweetness and maturity of tannins, the bunches are picked into 13kg boxes and transported to the winery. Some parcels may need to be picked more than once to get all the bunches to the same level of ripeness. Decisions as to whether to destem or not, crush or not are taken on the merits of each vintage. Fermentation is in stainless steel, with temperatures generally kept quite low to preserve the fresh fruit aromas. The maceration is usually quite short, the wine then being kept in tank or transferred to barrels (some 225l and some larger) for élevage.