Beaumes-de-Venise exploration: Domaine Raboly
Website: https://www.domaineraboly.fr
This was one of the highlights of the trip. It’s the last winery left in the village of Beaumes-de-Venise, and we met with Theo Xavier (pictured above), who is the young vigneron at the heart of this project, based on a family domaine that Theo has revitalized. In 2016 he converted the farm to organics, and in 2022 he created Domaine Raboly.
Theo lives here, his grandmother is next door on one side and his father Jean-François is on the other side. He says that he chooses to work with local people and the rebirth of this winery has helped give some animation to the village.
Theo’s great great grandfather made wine below the house, and the main room was for silk worms. Even 80 years ago, cherries were a big local crop, and while people made wine, they didn’t make a living from it.
The Xavier family have 23 hectares of vineyards, but Theo just makes 10 000 bottles of wine a year, so they sell grapes to the cooperative too. He studied in Beaune, and worked in Burgundy, and later gained experience in South Africa, too.
Theo is taking a long-term view with varieties, and is keen on Cinsault, Counoise and Mourvèdre, as well as Grenache and Syrah. He also has some Oeillade Noir, which is a massale selection of Algerian Cinsault made by Philippe Bernard. He’s also getting some Piquepoul Noir and Carignan Blanc.
The Raboly vineyards are 20% in the mountains with clay-rich soils, and 80% on the plateau with sandy soils. He thinks that the sandy soils are capable of real elegance. He says that Emmanuel Reynaud gave him the idea that sandy soils, which weren’t the ones people were excited about, were capable of making wines of finesse and elegance.
Domaine Raboly Benoit XII 2024 Vin de France
13% alcohol. 100% Rolle, clay limestone soils, 0.3 hectares. This has a fresh nose with crystalline citrus fruit. Alert and appealing. The palate is focused with a wide dynamic range. Crystalline with a slight saltiness on the finish. Bright and expressive with lovely personality. 94/100
Domaine Raboly Beaumes de Venise Clément V 2024 France
14% alcohol. 90% Grenache, 10% Syrah. Wonderful aromatics here with sweet black cherries, some wild herbs, and floral notes. The palate is fresh, supple, refined and elegant with a lovely core of raspberry and red cherry, showing real finesse and elegance. There’s a hint of olive and pepper, but the core is sweet, focused fruit. A wonderful expression of Beaumes de Venise, with Grenache showing what it can do here. 96/100
Domaine Raboly Beaumes de Venise Clément V 2023 France
14% alcohol. 90% Grenache, 10% Syrah. This comes from 96 year old vines planted on limestone-rich clay. Malolactic in barrel, demi-muids, getting old barrels from the Muscat to make the reds. Not using pressings, which loses 20% of the volume. Lovely floral aromatics with cherries and berries, leading to a focused palate showing elegant, fine raspberry and cherry fruit, with purity and freshness. Very fine. (it’s actually more like 15.5% alcohol but stays very fresh; massale selection is very important for this.) 94/100
Domaine Raboly Beaumes de Venise Jean XXII 2023 France
14% alcohol. 90% Syrah, 10% Grenache. Wonderful aromatics here with a note of pepper and fine, fresh, floral cherry and berry fruits. There’s lovely energy on the palate with direct red and black cherry fruit showing nice presence. Slightly salty on the finish. 94/100
Domaine Raboly Beaumes de Venise 2022 France
15% alcohol. 90% Syrah, 10% Grenache. Debut vintage. There’s a lovely ripe fruit quality to the nose, which shows sweet cherries. The palate is rounded and sweetly fruited, with some nice peppery hints and also a touch of bitterness from the alcohol. But this is drinking very nicely now. 93/100
