DOMAINE MONTIRIUS

Who: The Saurel family

Where: Sarrians (Rhône, France)

What grapes: Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault

How many bottles:

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We are crossing the Rhone. An anonymous castle floats past, an island in the middle of the wide river. I’m travelling backwards. Literally, facing south as we accelerate in the direction of Paris. Also figuratively, trying to grab fading memories of ten days roaming through vines and cellars and kitchens. 

Manon felt no familial pressure to work at Domaine Montirius. Her parents were wise: the weight some of Manon’s friends felt as heirs, charged with continuing historic estates, it could be too much to bear. Her buddies often left, abandoning the burden of reputation and legacy. Absent this burden of expectations, at 18 the Saurel’s youngest daughter chose to become the face of the winery. And she’s well-suited to the task. Manon’s smile is infectious, her eyes convey real love for biodynamic farming, and admiration for the path her family has chosen. She is (along with her sister, who works in the cellar) the sixth generation of the Saurel family to farm in Sarrians, a beautiful plateau surrounded by forest that now forms the southern tip of the Vacqueras AOC. Her parents built the house and cellar they currently inhabit two years before Vacqueras became a cru of the southern Rhone. Wise investment! Previous generations of Saurels were a part of the local co-op. It was biodynamics that precipitated the family’s rift from the cooperative. After a few years of tending vines in accordance with the principles of Rudolf Steiner, they saw a transformation beginning. Nature returned. Even an invasion of ladybugs arrived at their domaine. Auspicious. The Saurels wanted to taste the difference. The co-op was indifferent to the idea of producing a separate cuvee from their grapes. An impasse. So they left, built a cellar and a home. They filled the former with concrete tanks, as opposed to barrels, to avoid masking the flavour of the fruit that newly-vigorous nature was providing. The Saurels struck out on their own. A generation later, Montirius is one of the most revered estates in the southern Rhone. 

People thought they were crazy at first. Twenty years ago, the tastes of Robert Parker held sway in the Rhone, meaning oak and concentration were essential parts of fashioning sellable wine. At least, that was conventional wisdom. Tipicity for Mediterranean reds meant power, tannin, a thick mouthful of open fruit and alcohol. The wines of Monitrius are slender, ethereal, with delicate red fruit and lightness, instead of heft and bombast. The wines need time in bottle to reach their ideal, a fact that the Saurels accept, and encourage via maintaining an extensive selection of available back vintages. Above all, they are wines for the region’s cuisine and climate: even the reds are enjoyable in the heat of Midi summer. Especially at cellar temperature, in the late afternoon shade of olive trees overhanging a patio terrace. 

We are lucky to visit on a rainy and cool October morning. Because the odds of becoming completely soaked were good, we drove straight past the client parking at the front of the domaine, and edged our dented dirty rental Audi as close to the office door as manners allowed. Scattered oak trees, and a low tower housing a mechanical whirlpool for the preparation of biodynamic treatments separate house and cellar. The flat large Le Clos vineyard borders the driveway to the left, scant clusters of little berries hide behind its yellowing leaves. They are tasty, perhaps best left behind from harvest, but absolutely a refreshing snack: as long as one remembers to spit the seeds! 

Twenty years ago, biodynamic farming was unknown, and unfashionable. In that era of manipulation, addition, concentration, and sterilisation, the Saurels sought refuge by banding together with a small group of like-minded grape growers from across France. At first there were a dozen. And their ideas really didn’t gain an audience. It got to a point where the small support network considered disbanding from lack of attention. They decided to hold on for one more year. A sea change occurred. Suddenly they were twenty, now one hundred. The world found healthy farming, and began falling in love with the beautiful wines it can produce. 

We spent a little time in the cellar before tasting. It was the last day of harvest. They intended to pick fruit for a rosé, but rain interfered. Behind the winery, Manon’s sister cleaned the press with a hose, in a raincoat, in the deluge. On that day, she definitely drew the short straw. I imagine there are other days when Manon is on the road in Tokyo or the USA, tired from the essential task of making friends for her family’s wine, and she envies her sister and the tranquility of cellar work. 

Montirius was built on three levels. The ground floor’s dimensions were calculated to correlate to the magnetic grid orientation of the site. All the fruit moves via gravity from the ground level to fermentation vessels, and to concrete ageing tanks below. Pallet-sized metal cages of unlabelled bottles fill one corner of the room, crowded together to make space for the season’s winemaking activities. Manon shows us a chalkboard sign her father placed on one of the cellar’s vessels, appealing to the wine gods to provide positive energy. The family understand that it is essential to have a positive outlook while conducting all the activities of the cellar and vineyard. Even wine can be influenced by a few kind words.

We skip across the driveway to the tasting room. Dogs bark from inside the house, suddenly aware that Americans have entered the building. Montirius stretches across 68 hectares of Vacqueyras and Gigondas, which makes the commitment to biodynamic farming even more impressive. Manon mentioned that at harvest she becomes the Human Resources director and sometimes nurse for a team of two dozen grape pickers. For most of the year they maintain a permanent team of seven employees. They were the first certified biodynamic estate in the Rhone, legit since 1999. Biodyvin, Ecocert, certified vegan, gluten free, Biosuisse, and NOP-USDA certified organic. They are for real. In 1980 Max Saurel (grandfather of Manon) “had a premonition about the negative effects of using chemical fertilizer on the land, and stopped their application.” In 1987 they abandoned the use of herbicides. In 1989 (the year Manon’s sister Justine was born) her parents discovered homeopathy and changed their diet, and really their lives. The next year they gave up chemical pesticides, and by 1996 were fully committed to biodynamic methods. 

We taste wine.

• Le Cadet Vaucluse IGP Grenache-Syrah 2022 - Very pretty slightly spicy dark fruit aromas. In my retail past life this wine was a staple in shops I inhabited. 

• Le Cigales 3L BiBs Grenache-Syrah 2023 - Red fruit: raspberry, Some leather. Seamless. A really fun, light wine for summer. 

• "Les Violettes" Vaucluse IGP Syrah 2022 - The mouthfeel of this and other recently tasted Montirius reds has been notably appealing. Cool, refreshing. As the name implies, the wine has a floral tone, and is more about delicacy, less about intensity. 

• Cotes du Rhone La Muse Papilles rose AOP 2022 Muse Papilles Rose is 100% Cinsault. It has a very forward orange pith aroma. It is noticeably more persistent than most roses I’ve tried from the region.

• Cotes du Rhone La Muse Papilles red AOP 2022 is 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah. The vines are in Violes, across the road from Vacqueras, but still close to the winery. It is fruit-centric with a nice palate-feel, quite mineral. Red fruit and garrigue. Children from the local Waldorf school sing to these vines at harvest!

• Vacqueras "Les Villages" 2021 is 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah, with red fruit and  medium-weight, really quite drinkable already. Enjoyable even at 10am, with no food. I can’t wait to try this one with a lamb kebab.

• Vacqueras "Garrigues" 2020 is 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah picked from three parcels on the Vacqueras plateau. The wine is bigger, with a little heat on the finish. It’s good, but it needs time. 

• Gigondas "La Tour" 2021 is 80% Grenache and 20% Mourvedre. It has more open juicy blue fruit than the previous wines. Still, it’s very fun a wine I’d try with white bean puree and rosemary on toast, or grilled hamburgers with a lot of black pepper. 

It’s hard to leave these kind people and their happy farm. Hiding from the rain are chickens and cats. We bought a couple bottles of fine, which is a distillate made from grape juice, to take home as gifts for the kind people who made it possible for us to leave daily lives for the endlessly explorable backroads of Mediterranean France. I’m glad the TGV moves so fast. It breaks the spell, makes separation a blur, and easier to bear.