Main grape varieties

Red grapes :

Mourvèdre
Whimsical and fiery, Mourvèdre is endowed with a great potential for those who know how to listen to it, tame it, and wait for it. Mourvèdre, originating from Spain, made of Bandol its place of choosing.
 
Lord of Bandol, it sits enthroned on the terraces, adulated by all the wine growers, to whom it gives back a lot of the care it’s given, and gives the red wines of Bandol their masculine and powerful nature. After a first period of shyness, it offers a rich tannic structure. Made of cone-shaped bunches, with small nd dark black grapes, Mourvèdre can sometimes account for 95% of the types of vine. In young wines, it develops aromas of Morello cherry, blackcurrant, wild blackberry, prune, licorice, violet,… then, with time, while its tannins are developping, it expresses more complex aromas such as undergrowth, leather, truffle, black berries in alcohol…

Grenache
It also likes the terroir of Bandol, arid, dry and swept by mistral.
 
Cinsault
Its long bunches with crunchy big grapes of a beautiful blue-black color, looking a bit like plums, will bring the necessary amount of refinement and smoothness.
Mixed together by wine growers who work like goldsmiths, these three grape varieties will produce robust, elegant and full-bodied wines.
 
Minor grape varieties
They are Carignan and Syrah for the red wines of Bandol.
 For the rosé wines of Bandol, they are Bourboulenc, Carignan, Clairette, Syrah and Ugni.
 
For red as for rosé, the wines are produced by mixing at least two authorized grape varieties, at least one of which being a main type of vine. In order to sublime the wine, and to give it the personnal touch of each wine grower, the minor grape varieties can be added, with a maximum limit of 10% or 20%, depending on the fact that the grape variety is taken in consideration individually or globally.


White grapes :

Ugni blanc
Its very big cylinder-shaped bunches with spherical grapes are golden-yellow colored, with more or less amber or pink. Fond of poor soils, Ugni brings freshness and refinement.
 
Bourboulenc
To ripen, this grape variety needs a warm climate that it naturally found in Bandol and which allows it to express its fruity and floral notes.
Clairette
Vigorous grape variety, its bunches are medium-sized and compact. Its grapes are thin-skinned, pointed and olive-shaped, brindled with brown spots. Clairette puts up well with poor soils and, grown with a small yield, gives a tasteful and powerful wine.
 
Minor grape varieties
Marsanne, Sauvignon, Sémillon, Vermentino or Rolle.
 
White wines come from the mixing of grapes or wines made from at least two main grape varieties and, if necessary, minor types of vine. The rule of proportion regarding the grape varieties is same than for red and rosé wines.