Domaine le Garrigon         

Daniel and sister Marie-Francoise produce their wine from their vineyard near the ancient village of Tulette in the Drome.

The village was heavily fortified and in the 12 century was the stronghold of Princes of Orange. In the 14th century there was a Benedictine Priory at Tulette and today much of the remains of the ramparts and priory are still visible. Vineyards surround the village and as you would expect they provide much of he work in the area. To the west the town of Suze la Russe is home to the Université du Vin.

The grandfather of Daniel and Marie-Francoise began the heritage of Domaine le Garrigon in 1919 when he began wine production at Tulette and today the Domaine extends over some 74 hectares (approx 184 acres).

The hot dry region is ideally suited to wine production with its sedimentary clay and pebbly limestone soils.  The Domaine produces AOC Côtes du Rhone and Rhone Villages wines.

The conversion to organic production was in 1997. For the past 35 years the land has been free from chemical weed killers. The grapes are harvested by machine and brought to the winery where the stalks are removed prior to fermentation. This uses only naturally occurring yeasts. The wine is matured for 10 months in vats prior to bottling.

They maintain the quality of the wines through low grape yields and careful use of traditional methods of viniculture. They plant 3000 vines per hectare and produce 25 hectolitres per hectare of white wine and 42 hectolitres per hectare of red wine.