Domaine du Grand Tinel

Alexis Establet bought the first vines in 1846. The house was not called Grand Tinel until 1972: before that it was Petit Gardiole, and before that it went by another name still.

The one that stuck has a nice twist. Tinel was the word used in Italy and the south of France for the refectory, the common dining hall. It comes from late Latin tinellum, and that from tina: vat. The name ends up pointing back to the vessel the wine ferments in.

In the 1960s Elie Jeune married into the family and shaped the winery as it stands. His children Christophe, Béatrice and Isabelle run it today.

Fifty-six hectares of vines in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, on an unusually mixed set of soils — sand, clay, limestone and the galets roulés — with vines over a century old and organic farming.