Dating back to Roman times, the vineyards of Château de Bord in Laudun belonged to the Bishops of Uzès in the 11th century. They were then owned by the Count of Toulouse before being abandoned during the French Revolution.
It then passed from one owner to another, before being bought in 1991 by the Brotte family who was interested in its exceptional soils. The walls of a very fine medieval castle rise above and overlook the vineyards.
The 33-hectare domaine is situated on a hillside, on a succession of directly south-facing terraces (well-drained clay-limestone soils in the “Camp de César” lieu-dit). These terraces are unusual in that they contain a large number of sea shells and oyster fossils
Our yield of 35 hl/ha (40 hl/ha for the AOC) ensures that the grapes are perfectly concentrated. The altitude provides a nice freshness and the deep, well-exposed soils endow this land’s top grape varieties, Grenache and Syrah, with lovely complexity and finesse.
The sustainably-worked soils are ploughed during the year. The green work (disbudding, leaf thinning, green pruning) is very thorough in order to reduce the yields and thereby improve the quality. The hand-harvested grapes are transported quickly in small containers to prevent them from crushing too soon and oxidising. At the winery, they are completely destemmed, crushed and fermented at 28°C, which is then followed by a 3-week maceration. The more tannic Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache wines are aged in French oak barrels (1/3 new, 1/3 previously used for one fill, 1/3 for two fills) and the softer Grenache is aged in concrete tanks, amphorae and 100-year-old oak foudres in order to preserve the fruit. The wine is bottled in April after more than a year of ageing and a light filtration.
This wine typically possesses remarkable softness and finesse.
