2020 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rouge, Provence, France (750ml)   

The gold standard and original Bandol Rouge that established the appellation as a world class wine growing region. A typical blend of 75% Mourvèdre, 14% Grenache, 9% Cinsault and 2% Carignan from vines with an average age of 40 years old, this is a deeply flavored and textured bottle of wine with luscious red fruit flavors and lovely earthy minerality.

We always love having a Domaine Tempier wine on the shelf whether it's the rose or this nicely concentrated rouge. It is a reliably and appealingly delicious wine with its classic state of richly toned and balanced Provencal wonderfulness. With decades of pedigree behind it, it's easy to sense the soul of this wine and to let the mind wander back to the heyday of the domaine when Lulu Peyraud would entertain her guests with her Provencale cuisine and warm hospitality (at least that's how Kermit Lynch endearingly describes the scenes in his descriptions of the estate.) For those of us who haven't had the opportunity to visit this special place, at least we can drink the wine that put it on the world wine map. The Bandol wine appellation in Provence has Domaine Tempier to thank for its very existence. For it was Lucien Peyraud who led the charge to lobby the I.N.A.O. (Institut National des Appellations d’Origines) for Bandol's AOC status in 1941. Lucien became enthralled with exploring the terroir of Bandol and its somewhat forgotten Mourvedre grape after tasting a pre-phylloxera bottle of Domaine Tempier. It was a gift, along with the domaine itself, from his father-in-law after marrying his beloved Lucie, or Lulu as she came to be known. With Lucien's hard work and dedication to prove Mourvedre to be the great grape it is known to be today, Domaine Tempier went on to become one of France's, if not the world's, great wine estates revered especially for its iconic Rose and this elegant, age-worthy red. Lucien sadly passed away in 1996 and his sons took over running the domaine until recently when they retired and left it in the very capable hands of Daniel Ravier who is continuing to uphold the fine standards set by Lucien and maintaining its prominence on the world stage of great wine estates.