The Dentelles de Montmirail,
Their jagged silhouette melting into a backdrop of blue and green, silently watching over us every time that we gaze up towards the sky. It is this Dantesque landscape that caught the eye of Xavier Vignon and into which he has poured all of his enthusiasm and shared in its destiny.
When he arrived here in 1996, this terroir was largely undiscovered and void of any reputed winemakers. This neglected landscape of holm oaks, olive trees and pine trees was beckoning to be taken and Xavier Vignon began to devote all of his energies and creativity into it.
‘It really was love at first sight and, almost 30 years later, the love story is still as strong as ever. We were completely free to do as we wanted. There’s all this stone, all these rocks fragmented by nature. It is a rugged, high-altitude climate although I was certain that this would turn out to be an asset for the wines. I knew that it was here that I needed to be, that this was my calling. Not just for the generosity of the wines but also to preserve the region’s identity, from the cicadas to the olive groves and apricot trees.’
Fragmented into 1000 different parcels formed several million years ago, this vast region has become Xavier Vignon’s playground. It is here that he draws his inspiration and where his art takes shape. It is also the place where it all began, when he had just finished travelling France and then fell in love with this northern slope of the Dentelles. He made it his mission to reveal the true potential of this generous new land and privately vinified just a few bottles of wine ‘for my friends, to prove to them the potential of these terroirs in which I so strongly believed.’
Yet the Dentelles de Montmirail are so much more to him than just a field for experimentation: they are what drives him in his desire to protect the climate and the environment. A nature that he seeks to preserve and cherish and to which he is personally committed. It was therefore only natural that his beloved project, his range of wines named ‘L’ESPRIT FRANÇAIS’ (French spirit), which embodies the values and savoir-faire of France, should be born here in this region.
In addition to the Dentelles, numerous other terroirs together form a joyful litany with which Xavier Vignon creates his wines. Châteauneuf-du-Pape as the motherland, complemented by Beaumes-de-Venise and its magnificent safer soils, the Férigoule region on the southern slope of the hillside, the Alpilles, the Carpentras, and the river that snakes its way through the landscapes, its beauty never waning.