Domaine Tempier is a BELOVED and legendary family-run estate, producing top quality benchmark wines from Bandol AOC in the Provence region, on the Mediterranean coast of France.
We first learned about the Tempiers when reading Kermit Lynch’s book “Adventures on the Wine Route” which offered a warm, intimate introduction to this family among others featured in the book.
As an aside “Adventures on the Wine Route” is a wonderful, in-depth look into key regions and producers of France. There’s nearly an entire chapter on Domaine Tempier in Bandol alone.
This particular wine is named after the organically-farmed vineyard from which it came – “La Tourtine” – and has 80% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, 10% Cinsault, where grapes are picked by hand and the soils are still tilled by horse.
It aged in oak foudres (large oak vessels) for 18 to 20 months, leaving nary a note of new oak, but rather depth, texture and complexity from the very delicate breaths this wine took over that time aging before bottle.
It’s delicious – marked by classic meaty, leather notes, next to ripe cassis, earth, clove, anise, garrigue, not to mention texture, mouthfeel, and warmth.
This is the kind of wine we love in the fall, when braised meats and stews are on the dinner table. Or next to a roaring winter’s fire. Then again it pairs well with a summer barbeque and everything in between, too. It’s a seasonally- and culinarily-diverse wine to say the least!
What’s your go-to Bandol rouge? We’d love to hear it. — 2 months ago
Dark ruby color and soft tannins with flavors of unsweetened cocoa, thyme, violet, and cherry. Rich and dry. — 18 days ago
See previous note 71 weeks ago. Barely medium weight but a good rendition of a new world Rhone blend. A nice little note of tar (char) after the sweet red fruit on the mid palate - Grenache based blend with Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvèdre and Counoise. Very savoury at the finish. A very easy wine to drink - great QPR. — 3 months ago
Gorgeous rose typical Bandol — 4 months ago
Excellent concentration despite the pale color, quaffable and refreshing. — 5 months ago
Rich, full-bodied, Tavel-like color- and weight-wise, the Mourvèdre (51%) really dominates, so Bandol-like as well, very nice rose!! — 4 months ago
Love what Epoch is doing at the estate, and have always been a fan of the wines. This 2013 is 82 Syrah/18 Mourvèdre, all from Paderewski vineyard. Followed over two days.
From start to finish, everything about this is Paso. Any time a wine can speak to place, that’s a checkmark for me. As most high quality Paso wines do, this has a weightless yet jam-packed fruit profile. Decidedly dark, but with 11yrs, it’s fading from black fruits to a kiss of red fruits. Mixed berry jam initially on the nose before it shows a spiced profile of cherry jerky, espresso, red and black currant and a sweet dark fig at the finish. Day 1 showed the spice upfront whereas day 2 showed the softened fig profile. Both enjoyable, just different. Enjoy over the next few years before this sheds its classical fruit. — 6 months ago
Tyler Felous
Punchy nose. Great backbone. Need to find more CA mouvedre — 19 days ago