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france: rhone

Mas de Libian, Côtes du Rhône

Mas de Libian, Côtes du Rhône

In the old days, Mas de Libian was a noble household, used predominately as a hunting lodge. In 1670 the Thibon family acquired the property; in 1970, exactly three hundred years later, Jean-Pierre Thibon took up management of the domaine and put in a wine making cellar. The cellar was built with the aid of friend Jean-Pierre de Monmollin, a collaboration that produced the name Caves des Deux Jean-Pierre, which can still be found stamped on the domaine’s corks.

Jean-Pierre Thibon and his wife bore three daughters, all of whom work in wine. In 1995 he created the company Mas de Libian—Libian being the name of the neighborhood—with his eldest daughter Hélène, middle daughter Catherine, and Hélène’s husband Alain (the youngest Thibon daughter works in Bordeaux as an enological researcher). Today Hélène, Catherine, and Alain tend to the domaine’s twenty-four hectares of vines and its wine, working as a family collective. Parents Jean-Pierre and Jacqueline are very much the anchors.

The domaine is just outside of Saint Marcel d’Ardeche, in the northwest sector of the Côtes-du-Rhône. Two important facts stand out about this location. First, the majority of the Thibon vineyards (all of the Côtes-du-Rhône Villages and part of the CdR appellation vineyards) grow high on top of an ancient Rhône River terrace—the same terroir as much of Châteauneuf-du-Pape with its galets roulets, or rounded stones, clay, and sand. This terrace rises up steeply behind the domaine. Effectively, it’s a giant gravel mound, washed up into a terrace by glacial torrents a bygone era ago. Vines love the drainage given by gravel and the dry depths offered to roots.

The second distinguishing fact is the weather: it’s warm, and protected from much of the cool, ripening-retarding winds that whip along the Alpine foothills across the river. On average, Mas de Libian harvests ten days earlier than domaines in Cairanne, to the southeast. Maturity is not at issue—they must guard against over-ripeness and Mourvèdre, that tough beast, lets its guard down to open exceptionally well here. (It’s said in the Rhône that Mourvèdre likes its head in the sun and feet in the water, and Libian’s clay terroir retains water nicely.)

These days the domaine is certified biodynamic in its farming. This is simply an extension of the practices of the family over generations, for pesticides and herbicides have never been used at Libian. Nestor, a rugged Comptois workhorse, is used by Catherine to plow ten hectares worth of vineyards; the rest Alain handles by tractor. The wines are made in concrete vats with, the cuvée depending, a portion being aged in large old foudres or older demi-muids to emphasize fruit ("Wine," says Hélène, "is made from grapes, not wood."). Intervention in the cellar is kept to a minimum. Care, passion, and familial effort are expressed to the maximum.

Please note that we represent this wine regionally, in California, rather than nationally.

The Wines