Tour du Bon Bandol Saint Ferréol 2020

The Land

Bandol is a seaside appellation, but Saint Ferréol comes from the part of Domaine de la Tour du Bon that turns its back to the sea. The estate sits near Le Brûlat, a hamlet of Le Castellet between the hilltop villages of La Cadière-d'Azur and Le Castellet, at the northern edge of the appellation and around 150 meters up, where the maritime influence softens. The vineyards form a natural amphitheater of heavy red clay, limestone, silt, and sandstone. Saint Ferréol draws on three parcels on the estate's chalkiest, northwest-facing soils, the coolest and latest-ripening ground on the property. That slow ripening lets Mourvèdre, a grape that needs every bit of Provençal sun, build tannin and depth while keeping its freshness.

The Wine

Tour du Bon Bandol Saint Ferréol 2020 is the estate's top red, around 90 percent Mourvèdre with Carignan making up the rest for brightness, from vines planted in the 1960s and 1970s. The fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed, then fermented in open-top cement vats for about three weeks with occasional pumping over. It ages in large oak foudres for at least 18 months, and closer to two years in recent vintages, and is bottled unfined and unfiltered. Large, neutral wood lets the Mourvèdre stay wild: expect blackberry and plum, dried rose, leather, game, tobacco, cocoa, and garrigue, with firm, grippy tannin and a fresh finish. In Provence, 2020 followed the warmest winter on record since 1900, a rainy spring, and a hot July and August, with harvest starting 7 to 10 days early.

The People

Agnès Hocquard-Henry's parents bought Tour du Bon in 1968, when it held only a few acres of table grapes, and spent two years clearing rocky ground to plant wine vines. Agnès arrived in 1990, leaving a career in the dairy business, and moved into what had been the family's vacation house. She came away from dairy with a firm dislike of stainless steel and works in concrete and wood instead. The estate is farmed organically and has used biodynamic treatments since 2018. Her cellar has also trained others: Antoine Pouponneau, now of Grange Saint-Sauveur in Anjou, was her cellar master from 1994 to 2006. Saint Ferréol is the clearest statement of her goal: Bandol's power, carried with finesse and built to age.

Food Pairing

Mourvèdre from Bandol at this level calls for slow-cooked, fragrant food. A Provençal daube of beef braised overnight in red wine with orange peel, olives, and herbes de Provence is the local answer, and the wine's tannin softens against the gelatin-rich sauce. Lamb shoulder roasted low with garlic, rosemary, and anchovy plays to the game and garrigue in the glass. Grilled merguez with chickpeas and harissa works because the spice and char meet the wine's leathery edge. For a cheese course, try an aged Tomme de Brebis with fig jam. Lay a few bottles down, but this is also the red to open on the first truly cold Sunday of the year.