Domaine Tempier

The Free Bacchus Story

Mourvèdre is thick-skinned and late-ripening, and after phylloxera it lost its place as Provence's leading grape. Lucien Peyraud thought the limestone garrigue of the Provençal hills was exactly where it belonged, and spent decades making the case.

He was right, and the Peyrauds helped put Bandol on the wine map; Lucien led its growers' syndicate from 1945 and urged them all to plant Mourvèdre. The family's influence reached well beyond France. Through Lulu Peyraud's friendship with Alice Waters, Tempier became part of the American food and wine conversation of the 1970s and 80s. Daniel Ravier has run the estate for the Peyraud family since 2000, and its wines are certified organic by Ecocert from the 2022 vintage.

The single-vineyard La Tourtine, La Migoua and Cabassaou are bottled parcel by parcel, and Wine Advocate's Joe Czerwinski rated the 2020 La Tourtine 94–96 from cask. Red Bandol is tannic, earthy and built to keep for a decade or more.

These are wines that taste as though no decision has ever been taken for commercial rather than qualitative reasons. That is a difficult impression to fake over three generations, and it comes largely from the farming.