Denis Tardieu 1 Items

Denis Tardieu's domaine is hidden back in the forested hills overlooking the Valley of the Aygues, north of Vaison-la-Romaine and along the eastern edge of the Côtes du Rhône zone. The Aygues is normally a languid creek (apart from spring rains and snowmelt) that comes out of the Alps, passes the Tardieu homestead, and continues by Cairanne on its way to the Rhône. For generations this valley was known for its olive orchards and oil production. In March of 1956 a warm spell came and sap rose early, and then overnight the temperature plummeted. The sudden deep freeze was murderous on the local olive trees—there are accounts of individual trees rending with great, thunderous cracks as their sap froze and their trunks burst open—and as much as 90% of Provence’s olive orchards were wiped out. The olive is far and away the longest-lived fruit tree on earth, capable of exceeding one thousand years, so the freeze must have been all but Biblical.

Denis's grandfather replanted 300 olive trees that summer. During the remaining years of that decade he also put in most of the vines that Denis farms today. In 1981 Denis took the reins of the domaine and built a simple cellar to make wine rather than sell the grape harvest to the local cooperative. He added to the olive orchard and he added to the vineyards. Today, he works 410 olive trees (still less than what his grandfather had prior to the freeze) and 12 hectares (30 acres) of vines. The vineyards break down into vin de pays (2.5 hectares or 6 acres), Côtes du Rhône (8.5 hectares or 21 acres, of which one--2.5 acres-- is in white varieties), and Côtes du Rhône Villages (1.8 hectares or 4 acres). Most of his wine production, however, is sold to the négoc; he keeps only a small amount—his best vat or two, normally—of wine to bottle and sell himself.

Since 2001 he has been certified organic for all of his olive and grape farming and production (along with making wine, he cures olives, makes tapenade, and of course has his olives pressed into oil). He lives at the domaine with his wife, Annie, who farms 14 of her own hectares (35 acres) of vines in nearby Buisson, and their son.