Estate Laurent Charvin in 4 seasons - Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Описание: ‘Charvin may indeed produce the Richebourg of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.’ - Robert Parker Jr, The Wine Advocate

In 1851, Guillaume Charavin created the wine estate south of the city of Orange. A few years later in 1867, unfortunately the famous phylloxera disease raged in Europe and gradually ravaged the vineyard. Around 1910 Guillaume Isidore Charavin and his son Elie replanted the entire vineyard of the estate with American grafters. A little anecdote: following an administrative error during this period, the family name "Charavin" was changed to "Charvin" so that today we speak of the Charvin estate which was the original name of the family in 1550.

At that time, the Charvins sold all the wine production in bulk and only slowly began to sell bottled wines around 1951. In 1990 Laurent Charvin took over the domain of his father Gérard and put about 8000 bottles on the market.

The Charvin estate is located in the north-west part of the appellation near the localities as Maucoil, Arnesque and Cabrières. Not far from the Château de Maucoil and Mont Redon. The estate covers 10 hectares for Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 18 hectares for Côtes du Rhône and 2 hectares for Vin de Pays. Recently Laurent has now been quite successfull producing white Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

The average age of the vineyard is over 50 years and some parts are even 120 years old. Laurent qualifies most of these plots as "cold". Sandy-clay soils. These rather cool vineyards allow him to produce rather elegant wines for an appellation like Châteauneuf.

The basis of Laurent Charvin's wines is the Grenache grape. This is 80 % present in the blend, completed with vaccarèse, syrah and mourvèdre for the Châteauneuf and carignan, mourvèdre et syrah for his Côtes du Rhône.

Vinification is still done in a fairly traditional way. Laurent was almost the only one to vinify with fermentations in whole bunches in concrete vats. The wines remain in the tanks for 18 months and are neither filtered nor fined. You won't find a single barrel or wooden casks in the cellar. Recently, other winegrowers have started to follow the same path.

Without losing power, the wines have in recent years gained in finesse and precision. The same goes for whites who show themselves to be fairer in maturity and energy.
Laurent Charvin's secret is very simple: “I only have very old vines and I do have to take care of them all year round. My yields are moderate and I interfere as little as possible once the wine has fermented. '

In all his conversations, he talks about the importance of respect for tradition, precision and intelligence in the approach to cultivation and winemaking and the natural balance in his wines and vines. And above all that nothing is final and nothing is acquired for eternity. For 10 years the estate has been cultivated certified organic.

Laurent is considered by Guy Julien, famous chef of the Beaugravière restaurant in Mondragon, as one of the best winegrowers in the appellation. As well as by other sommeliers and wine writers from France with a rating of three stars by the Revue du Vin de France.

The Côtes du Rhône are regularly ranked among the best of this region and it is perhaps not surprising that the vines of this cuvée are limited directly to the appellation of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the northern sector where they are located.
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