Vieilles Vignes Blanc
⏳ Drinking Window
2021 - 2025
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
roasted poultry, creamy mushroom risotto, grilled lobster with butter
✨ Technical Specifications
Tardieu-Laurent's Vieilles Vignes Blanc represents the pinnacle of Southern Rhone white winemaking, drawing from exceptionally old parcels of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, and Clairette. Sourced from low-yielding, ancient vines that dig deep into the limestone and clay soils of the region, this cuvee benefits from the cooling influence of the Mistral wind, which preserves essential acidity. In the cellar, Michel and Bastien Tardieu employ a Burgundian approach to these Mediterranean varieties, aging the wine in carefully selected oak barrels to enhance texture and complexity without masking the delicate floral, stone fruit, and mineral character. The result is a white wine of remarkable depth, weight, and aristocratic structure that challenges the traditional dominance of the region's red wines.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1994 by Michel Tardieu and Burgundian vigneron Dominique Laurent, Maison Tardieu-Laurent redefined modern Rhône Valley micro-négociant elevage. Operating from subterranean cellars in Lourmarin, Provence, the house is directed by Michel alongside his son, enologist Bastien Tardieu. Rather than owning extensive vineyards, the family cultivates close, long-term partnerships with elite growers across both the Northern and Southern Rhône, specifically contracting low-yielding, old-vine parcels rooted in granite, galets roulés, sand, and limestone soils. Tardieu-Laurent takes delivery of raw, fermented must or young wines in barrel, overseeing an uncompromising élevage regime. While initially famed for pioneering whole-cluster fermentations raised in new Allier and Tronçais oak, the house has progressively shifted toward larger neutral foudres and demi-muids, eschewing fining and heavy filtration. Benchmark cuvées such as their old-vine Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Hermitage, Saint-Joseph, and Côte-Rôtie are praised for their seamless concentration, mineral precision, and authentic regional terroir expression.
🍇 Grapes
Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne