Domaine de Fondrèche Blanc 2025, Ventoux AOC, Rhône, Organic

Domaine de Fondrèche Blanc is a white Ventoux from Sébastien Vincenti’s estate on the Fondrèche plateau, at the foot of Mont Ventoux in the southern Rhône. It is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Clairette in roughly equal parts, with a little Rolle (Vermentino). The white grapes are grown on two plots of sand and silt over limestone. They are picked at night and pressed under nitrogen to protect their freshness, then fermented in temperature-controlled vats and left on their fine lees for six months, before being bottled on ‘flower days’ of the lunar calendar.

In the glass it is fresh and expressive. The nose shows white peach, ripe pear and a touch of honey. The palate is medium-bodied and lively, with citrus flavours, a clear mineral thread and a gently saline finish that keeps it refreshing.

Serve chilled, at around 10–12°C. It is a natural partner for fish and seafood: try it with grilled cod, white fish with a fennel sauce or scallop carpaccio, as well as Provençal vegetable dishes and fresh goat’s cheese. Enjoy it within two or three years of the vintage, while it is at its freshest.

Domaine de Fondrèche lies on the Fondrèche plateau at the foot of Mont Ventoux, in the southern Rhône, with vineyards spread across the villages of Mazan, Mormoiron and Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols. The estate was bought in 1991 by Nanou Barthélémy, and her son Sébastien Vincenti joined her in 1993, switching from business studies to oenology and building the domaine’s own cellar by 1997, with early guidance from André Brunel of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Today the estate covers around 38 hectares. Sébastien farms without herbicides, sows cover crops to improve soil structure and biodiversity, and times vineyard work by the lunar calendar. In the cellar he favours gentle extraction, using large oak casks and concrete eggs for the reds rather than small barrels, so that the wines express their sites.