Gigondas: Domaine des Florets, a new ecologically focused domaine
Website: https://www.domainedesflorets.com/en/home
Jérôme Rathle was an environmental consultant, and had worked for he world’s largest specialist sustainability consultancy, ERM, until he decided he wanted to get closer to nature by owning a vineyard. So he bought a beautiful plot in Gigondas, just under the Dentelles de Montmirail.
‘In my previous life I was a sustainability consultant,’ he says. ‘I advised big French companies. I did this for 25 years. I tried all my best to protect the planet from an office in Paris. But at one point, I wanted to do something with my hands, to have contact with nature, to do something on my own scale, in the last third of my professional life.’
‘A farmer is at the front of all the environmental issues we are facing now: climate change, biodiversity and water. It was a good challenge for me to say: I am in the front line, and I have to do something.’
Here he’s farming biodynamically but also increasing biodiversity by planting trees in the vineyard: agroforestry in practice. ‘I have planted 500 trees,’ says Jérôme. ‘The idea is to encourage water retention, to protect from the sun and to give some nutrients to the vines. I also want to avoid erosion: here the slopes are 25% and when it is raining the water runs down.’
He’s also looking to practise key line water management. By looking at the way water naturally flows through and ecosystem, it’s possible to retain it and harness it, rather than letting it cause erosion when the flow is particularly strong. The trees are important here. ‘We follow the preferential path of water,’ he says. ‘When you have more trees, they also make the local rainfall higher: it’s a circle of water.’
‘This is a project I have for the future: to do generative hydrology. The water resource is rare, but if we use it carefully and cleverly, we can manage it. This is something that I am looking at here: to keep all the water. If I can do this, then maybe I can survive 20 years! In the long-term there may be no solution.’
From 2023 he has been organically certified and is starting biodynamic certification this year (2024). ‘I use a lot of plants for treatment,’ he says. ‘The principal is to give a signal to the vines: for example, [telling them there is] water stress coming, or disease coming, so they can prepare to defend themselves.’
In the winery he uses natural yeasts. ‘But I’m not a fan of natural wine,’ he says. ‘I can’t sell wine that will change a lot in 6 months. We are like chefs: the great chefs don’t leave the ingredients to themselves, they try to change them.’
There are four hecatres here at an altitude of about 450 m, facing north east. The vines are Grenache and Syrah, with the former 70 years old and the latter about 10.
THE WINES
Jérôme described the idea behind the label of the two wines. With Alliance he wanted to represent the piece of the planet that is lost, with the lighthouse. The human can build something that is useful. If there is no alliance between humans and nature, then we will be lost. For Synchronicité, he is talking about the strange coincidences, when you are in the right place at the right moment. He says he had some doubts about changing his life path, but every six months he has had a light saying to him that he’s in the right place.
Domaine des Florets Gigondas Alliance 2022
This is 70% Grenache, 30% Syrah, two thirds in stainless steel and one third in oak. Ripe, juicy and aromatic with warm cherries and plums. Lovely texture here with a fine peppery edge to the lush fruit. This has depth and balance with a sweet core of fruit and a fine-grained mineral finish. 93/100
Domaine Des Florets Gigondas Synchronicité 2022
100% Grenache, oak aged. Highly aromatic and peppery with nice brightness and some herbal hints, as well as pepper, garrigue and sweet cherries. Fresh, linear palate shows good tannins with nice brightness. Focused spice and pepper here with nice grip. Fine. 95/100
DOMAINE DES FLORETS
1467 Rte des Florëts, 84190 Gigondas
04 90 40 47 51
contact@domainedesflorets.com
RHÔNE DISCOVERY
- Ventoux: a big tasting
- Ventoux: Les Chancel
- Ventoux: Aymard
- Ventoux: Souleyrol
- Ventoux: Château Pesquié
- Ventoux: Xavier Vignon
- Gigondas: an overview
- Gigondas: Saint Cosme
- Gigondas: Tasting the first white Gigondas wines
- Gigondas: Domaine Les Florets
- Gigondas: Santa Duc
- Gigondas: Pierre Amadieu
- Gigondas: Domaine des Bousquets
- Gigondas: a big tasting of Gigondas wines
