Southern Rhone, France: Domaine la Roubine

The story begins in 1990 when Eric Ughetto took over the family vineyards located in Gigondas. He was joined by Sophie in the late 90s and the two of them decided to make wine with their own grapes. The Area "La Roubine" was created in 2000 with its first vintage. Today the company is still a family run business. The land is partially located on the left bank of the river Ouveze and the AOC Gigondas is situated on the hillside at the foot of the Dentelles mountains, 300m above sea level; these vines require more care and attention but they also offer finer and more concentrated wine. An old saying goes "One does not extract in the cellar, we extract from the vine". We must respect the soil and vines. This is the reason why we do not use pesticides, chemical fertilisers or hericides. The only products used are traditional copper and sulphur. During the harvest we search for only the ripest grapes. The small size of our operation gives us more flexibility and allows us to defer some harvest dates, specially for our most elevated land, in order to ripen the crop. The grapes are then skilfully picked by hand. We allow our wines to mature partly in concrete tanks to preserve fruit and freshness and partly in a half hogsheads of French oak to round out the tannins.