DOMAINE HAUVETTE
Country: France
Region: Provence
Appellation(s): Baux de Provence, IGP Alpilles Producer: Dominique Hauvette
Founded: 1988
Annual Production: 3,300 cases
Farming: Biodynamic (since 2000)
Website: N/A
Not far from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a tourist town known for Roman ruins and as the place where Van Gogh painted “The Starry Night,” you’ll find Domaine Hauvette.
Nestled among the foothills of Les Alpilles, the vines are surrounded by a rocky and wild landscape—the clay and limestone soil retains moisture for the arid summer months, the Mistral blows half the year, and garrigue is seemingly everywhere. It is here that in the early 1980s Dominique Hauvette, seeking more sunshine, left her job as a lawyer in the Savoie, re-discovered her passion for raising horses, and began studying oenology. Thirty-some years later and Dominique now has 17 hectares of vines and an international reputation for making benchmark natural wines.
When striving to make wine as naturally as possible, a focus on growing the healthiest and most perfect grapes is an absolute necessity. Dominique’s conversion to biodynamics starting in 2000 added rigor to her intuitive organic practices, and coupled with her magical terroir she has found an exciting recipe for success. In the cellar, she takes a decisively non-interventionist stance and is very low-tech, yet she is not afraid to experiment as is evidenced by her being one of the first winemakers to use concrete fermentation eggs. Like Didier Barral and Catherine and Pierre Breton, Dominique is a trailblazer in the natural wine movement, each year pushing the quality of her wines higher and higher with uncompromising standards. Her range of wines provides much to be excited about: the “Petra” rosé completes its malolactic fermentation in concrete eggs, the “Jaspe” Roussanne is probably the most delicious pure varietal Roussanne you’ll ever taste, the “Cornaline” Rouge is like a blend of Trévallon, Tempier, and Vieux Télégraphe, and the “Amethyste” Cinsault has finesse to rival many Burgundies. Bienvenue Dominique.
IGP Alpilles Blanc “Jaspe”
100% Roussane
15 years average
Clay, Limestone
2 ha
Baux de Provence Rouge “Cornaline”
50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon
40 years average
Clay, Limestone
1 ha
Baux de Provence Rouge “Amethyste”
60% Cinsault, 30% Carignan, 10% Grenache
40 years average
Clay, Limestone
2 ha
VITICULTURE / VINIFICATION
• Hand Harvested
• Sorting in the vines
• Red grapes are fully de-stemmed
• White grapes are pressed whole cluster
• Fermentation with native yeasts for all wines
• Fermentation lasts 2 to 3 weeks
• IGP Alpilles Blanc “Jaspe” is fermented in cement eggs and stainless steel tank
• Baux de Provence Rosé “Petra” is fermented in cement eggs, on the lees
• Red wines ferment in wood tanks
• Red wines undergo daily, light punchdowns
• “Cornaline” is raised in foudre, “Amethyste” in cement eggs
• Wines are neither filtered nor fined