The vineyard
“The Great Wine of the Luberon”
Robert Parker, the well known American wine critic, gave Château de Mille his highest mark in the region, when he visited in the mid-eighties. The Château has launched a massive program, designed to produce the best red, rose and white wines. We are adopting modern, sustainable and organic methods, while respecting the Luberon tradition.
The new owners, with the help of Laurence Berlemont and her team at Cabinet d’Agronomie Provençale, have commenced a restructuring of the vineyard through a double strategy: re-focusing on the AOP grape varietals and converting to fully organic viticulture, prohibiting the use of any pesticides and inorganic fertilisers.
The vineyard
Today, the estate is growing seven grape varietals: Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, Roussanne, Clairette Blanche and Ugni Blanc. It benefits from hecatares of beautiful old vines, many of which over 60 years old. They will remain and will be complemented with new fields of Cinsault, Rolle (Vermentino) and Mourvèdre.
Red grapes
Syrah, the typical grape of Provence and Côtes du Rhône, produces high quality wines, fine, complex and tannic, with low acidity and aromas of spice, leather, dark chocolate, oak and truffle.
Grenache prospers on dry, stony soil. It produces strong, golden-red wine, with aromas of spices and pit-fruit such as plums and cherries, sometimes jammy fruit. Secondary aromas include black fruit, burnt sugar, old wood, coffee and cocoa.
Carignan makes a strong, high-colour wine, slightly astringeant, with herbaceous and mineral notes.
Cinsault is a low-alcohol grape, a great counter-balance to Grenache when we blend vats. It is also essential to make rosé. It has raspberry, almond and hazelnut aromas. It is particularly well-suited to the hot Southern climate, with large leaves that provide shade to the grapes in summer.
Mourvèdre brings excellent, subtle qualities in assemblage. The grape is tannic and fragrant, with notes of spices, leather, musk and hints of oak.
White grapes
Clairette produces wine with low acidity and quite high alcohol, and with aromas of grapefruit and white flowers. It matures late and resists oidium well. It grows well on poor, chalky soils.
Roussanne originates from the Rhône Valley and produces a fruity, floral wine, with fine, elegant aromas.
Rolle (or Vermentino), originally from Italy, is a typical grape of Provence. It produces strong yet fresh, very aromatic, flower and fruit-forward wine.
The rich mix of varietals provides a range of tastes and aromas that capture this unique combination of Provence and the Rhône Valley – enabling Château de Mille to make extraordinary wines – red, white and including rosé, naturally, whose vinification uses both red and white grapes.
