Domaine André Mathieu

The Mathieus have been in Châteauneuf-du-Pape since around 1600, and that line produced a poet. Anselme Mathieu was born in the village in 1828, son of the fourth generation running the estate, and on 21 May 1854 he founded the Félibrige alongside Frédéric Mistral and five others: the movement that set out to restore literary standing to the Provençal language. He signed as Félibre di Poutoun, the félibre of kisses, and published La Farandole in 1862.

What ties him to this winery is not only the surname. At the end of the nineteenth century he was among the first in the village to sell his wine in bottle, when the norm was to sell it in bulk.

André Mathieu took over from his father Charles in 1987 and works with his wife, Cécile, and their children Coralie and Thibault.

Twelve hectares within Châteauneuf-du-Pape, planted with all thirteen varieties the appellation allows, and a little over twenty in total spread across sixty parcels — high fragmentation even for the southern Rhône — around Courthézon, Bédarrides, Roquemaure and Orange. Average vine age is about fifty years and the oldest are over a century.

The main red is grenache-based, aged in old wood.