Château Vessière

For the last few years we have watched as the wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape have leapt in price to the point where we don't believe they can offer good value, except at the top end. We visited the town in 2007 to find some better value wine bearing this famous name but failed in our search - we are unwilling to buy a new wine just for the sake of ticking a box and the only wines we could afford were thin and dull.

Meanwhile, next door in the less-famous-and-therefore-cheaper Costières de Nîmes, similar soil covered by familiar looking large stones warmed by the same sun is planted with the same grape varieties. Can you see where this is going? Enter Château Vessière, who's wines are as good as any Chateauneuf we tasted on our trip, beautifully presented and best of all ... we can afford to open a bottle or two!

We'll leave it to Phillipe Teulon to tell you more about his vineyard....

The Château Vessière Vineyard covers 70 hectares in the south of the Roman city of Nîmes. The love story between this land and our family began seven generations ago. It belonged to Mademoiselle Vessière who married one of my ancestors Teulon. It has been handed down through the Teulon family until the present day. Today, I continue the tradition. Being born into this Estate, I feel like I have a strong connection with this land.

My father, Robert Teulon, handed the property to me in 1975. However, before I could start running it, I had to take an Oenology course, at the Faculté des Sciences at the University of Montpellier. An interesting fact is that the first bottle filling at the Château took place, in 1978, on the birthday of my first son Pierre, the eighth generation of Teulons. These bottles were only ever made for private consumption.

Since then, the bottling has taken place every two months at the Château. In 1979, for the birth of my second son Vincent, I decided to export our wine, so I began to look for potential European customers. Nowadays, I have customers in Belgium, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Russia, China and America. I also recently found customers in Thailand and now England.

Today, my wife, my children and I work together on the family estate. We hope to pass on our love and passion for this land to future generations.

Our vineyard in Costières de Nîmes is one of the oldest in France. The wine produced in this area were enjoyed by the Greeks and later by the Romans. The discovery of an ancient amphora’s production site near Beaucaire, whose exports were traced as far afield as Italy, demonstrates the dynamism of wine trade in the region during Gallo-Roman times. This enthusiasm has continued through the centuries.

Located in the heart of a region which attracts many tourists, our vineyard spreads from the south of Nîmes to the north of Camargue, where Provence meets Occitanie. These places have been points of reference throughout history: Nîmes, former capital of the Volques Arécomiques in Gallo-Roman times and its Ampitheatre; in the surrounding area there is the Pont du Gard, Saint-Gilles abbey.

During the Ice Age, rocky alluvial deposits formed all through the Rhone Valley. This is the reason for the exceptional soil found today in the region’s vineyards.

Our soil contains villafranchiens gravel (brownstone) which results from the alternation of warm and cold periods during the Quaternary period. The composition of our soil allows rain water to seep in through the small stones and gather in waterproof underground furrows. This predisposition provides our vines with a regular supply of water throughout the year, avoiding droughts during the summer months.

Whether red, white or rosé, our wines are always the result of carefully slected vines in accordance with well-defined quantities.

> Our red and rosé wines are made from the following grape varieties: Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre and Carignan.

> Our whites are a mixture of three great varieties: Roussanne, White Grenache and Viognier.

The richness of this palette of grapes produces a typically appealing and varied combination.

Our vineyard literally encircles our private cellars which means that the grapes never take more than 5 minutes to reach our winery. This means we don't have problems of oxidation which have a very undesirable effect on grape quality. However, we are not satisfied with this and the grapes for our white wine are picked at night so as to minimise thermal shock and conserve the maximum potential of our harvest. Finally, to complete our work in the field, carbon dioxide is present at every stage in the cellar to protect the wort against any irreversible oxidation

Philippe Teulon