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Domaine de Trévallon, Vin de Pays des Bouches du Rhône
Eloï Durrbach
Eloï Durrbach has been producing wine at Domaine de Trévallon since 1977. The vineyard was within the appellation Coteaux des Baux de Provence, but since Eloï did not agree to plant any other varieties than the Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon which he has always vinified, he lost appellation status, and was “demoted” to Vin de Pays.
His red, traditionally vinified in wooden open top fermentors, with low yields, late picking, and long cuvaison, is rich, powerful and complex, with the smoky ripeness of syrah balancing the firm structure of cabernet sauvignon. The wine spends two years in wood, foudres with about 10% new barriques. This is a wine which can age superbly for ten to twenty years.
The 2000 is rich ripe and velvety, with ripe firm fruit and good balancing acidity. The 1999 is also classically firm and ripe, and slightly more forward in style. The 2001 is outstanding; as with many areas of southern France, the vintage produced a small crop of very concentrated wines. The dry weather with periods of mistral dried the grapes, giving wines with good extract and colour, but with very low yields. Eloï had a yield of around 26 hectolitres per hectare, similar in fact to the 2000 vintage. (Unfortunately there will be no 2002, after heavy rainstorms devastated the crop)
The white is from Marsanne and Roussanne, with around 10% chardonnay. It spends about 20 months in oak. The 2001 is floral, very perfumed and rich, with soft, smoky ripe fruit. For Eloï the 2001 is the best white he has produced. (As with the red, there is no white in 2002. Eloï produced one barrel of Chardonnay, picked before the deluge, which he is keeping for himself!)
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