DOMAINE DE LA MORDOREE

Rhone, France

Being a vintner is not a job like any other - it is more of an avocation, an all-consuming passion that requires never losing contact with one's vines. Being a vintner means knowing one’s vineyards by heart, knowing each individual vine, feeling the stress of the 2003 drought, of the 2002 rainfall, as if one were a plant oneself… Being a vintner means having both one’s feet on one’s land, in one’s earth, like roots, to try and feel what the vines feel, and adjusting winemaking in accordance with the fruits actually picked. Being a vintner has little to do with using scientific methods. First and foremost come instinct, passion, feeling, improvisation – in one word, what man does. And this might be the difference between technically perfect wines and wines with a soul!  It is one of the rare activities in the world where being a big company is not the prime requisite for recognition. Quite the opposite, one can remain a small-scale craftsman offering unique wines in limited quantities intended for enthusiastic connoisseurs who are not looking for standardized products but for wines that display strong identities and true personality.

In our eyes the means to a result is at least as important as the result itself. We naturally aim for the best possible quality, but not at any cost; the end result is not the only important thaing. We are constantly reassessing our cultivation methods so as to never endanger the fragile balance that nature has taken so long to achieve.

We do not try to please everyone – we just try to remain ourselves.

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