Chêne Bleu: Farming Like It's the Ninth Century

Nicole and Xavier Rolet bought a 900-year-old ruin in the hills above Provence and turned it into one of the Rhône's most talked-about wine estates, a property critics have called the world's first "Super Rhône." They built it inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on Mont Ventoux, where wolves and wild boar walk through the vineyard at harvest and eat the grapes right off the vine. They still won't spray a single synthetic chemical.

Nicole and Xavier talk about what it actually costs to farm that way, the research that convinced them it was worth it, why their rosé can age for decades when the industry says it should be finished in a year, and the medieval love story behind the names of their two flagship reds, Abélard and Héloïse. It's a conversation about building something the slow, uncompromising way, on purpose.

What We Cover

Why Viognier is one of the most divisive grapes in the Rhône, and a Master Sommelier's blind-tasting trick for spotting itHow buying a "complete ruin" in France became a decades-long restoration, and a marriageWhy Chêne Bleu farms without synthetic chemicals, even with wolves and wild boar eating the crop at harvestThe additive that's quietly responsible for the "drink your rosé within a year" rule, and why Chêne Bleu's rosé doesn't follow itThe 12th-century love story behind the names Abélard and Héloïse, and why Xavier is glad he isn't the one the wine is named after

Presented By InVintory

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Where We Recorded

This episode was filmed on location at Fearrington House, in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

About Chêne Bleu

Chêne Bleu is the wine estate Nicole and Xavier Rolet built at Domaine de la Verrière, a restored 9th-century priory in the Vaucluse, southern Rhône. The estate sits inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on Mont Ventoux and is farmed without synthetic chemicals. Nicole Rolet also chairs Areni Global, an institute focused on the future of fine wine, and founded Fine Minds for Fine Wines.