Domaine Gardiès

The Producer

The history of the Gardiés estate began in the second half of the 18th century when the Castany family settled in the Mas Farine, in the middle of the Corbières in Roussillon. A descendant, Justin Castany, took over the plots of land at the beginning of the 20th century and developed viticulture, notably by clearing plots of scrubland to plant white, grey and black Grenache, and a few Carignan vines.

His daughter Noëlle inherited the estate between the wars and married Henri Gardiés, who renamed the estate. The domain develops and counts in the 1980s nearly 30 hectares of vines, chemically treated.

Jean Gardiés took over the estate in the 1990s and completely abandoned chemical treatment in 2004, focusing on the production of red wines in the Côtes du Roussillon appellation. He abandoned the sweet wines which now represent only 4 hectares of the vineyard. Today, he works four hands with his son Victor.

The commitments

Breaking with chemical treatment in 2004 and emphasizing manual harvesting, the Gardiés estate claims to have a philosophy close to nature and a desire to be as close as possible to the vine so that the latter can express itself more freely in the wines it produces.

The terroir
Located in the heart of Roussillon, the land of Domaine Gardiés covers 35 hectares, 20 of which are red and 15 are white. Back to the origins of the land and nature, the estate has abandoned in 2004 the chemical treatment and does its harvest manually. This allows a more direct relationship with the vines and a more frank expression of the grapes during their vinification.

The main grape varieties of the domain are Grenache noir (40%), Syrah (20%) and Mourvèdre (20%) for the red. For the white grape varieties, we find mostly white grenache (30%) and white muscat à petits grains (30%).

The wines

The estate offers pure white wines and fruity red wines or some more evolved with notes of leather.

Les Falaises is among the great vintages of the estate, a beautiful carignan that is still a bit closed and needs some aging.

La Torre is the other great vintage of the estate. It already offers a very nice muscular juice. Built on Mourvèdre, it is also to be kept so that it improves over time.

Les Millères is a sweeter red wine from the estate. It offers a bouquet of black fruits, olives and garrigues as well as a soft, velvety mouthfeel.

Les Glaciaires is a blend of grey and white grenache as well as roussanne and maccabeu. This blend offers a nice richness on the nose and palate, with a saline finish.

Les Vignes de mon Père is a rather charu white, built on white carignan. Its character is sunnier and more powerful than other whites from the estate such as the pure Je cherche le ciel.