Pushing open the door of a winery feels like stepping into someone’s home. You are welcomed by the grower or by their family, you cross a courtyard where an old plane tree dozes, you head down into a cool cellar where the barrels rest, and you end up, glass in hand, listening to the story of a particular plot and a particular vintage. Around Gordes, where we welcome our guests, this experience is only a few minutes’ drive away. The vineyards of the Luberon and the Ventoux wrap themselves around the village, and the cellar doors here are many, welcoming and often free. Here is how we suggest our guests approach a day among the wineries: unhurried, as gourmets, to bring home both beautiful bottles and good memories.
Three ways to visit a winery
Not every estate is best approached in the same way. Understanding these differences before you set off saves a good deal of disappointment and lets you shape your day around what you feel like doing.
The open cellar door, no appointment needed
This is the simplest and most common option. Many estates have a cellar door open all day long, especially in season, where you can walk in freely to taste a few cuvées and leave with a case. You chat with the cellar host, compare a pale rosé with a taut white, and ask for advice on pairings. It is ideal for a first taste of the region or for spur-of-the-moment days, when you don’t yet know where the road will take you.
The tasting by appointment
The more confidential estates, often the most fascinating, are happy to welcome you by appointment. A quick call the day before is all it takes, and the welcome is all the warmer for it: more often than not it is the grower themselves who shows you around the cellars, explains their work in the vines and pours you cuvées you won’t find on a supermarket shelf. Out of season, that phone call ahead is almost essential, as many small producers do not keep continuous opening hours.
Destination estates: architecture, art and tables
Some estates in the region have turned their setting into a destination in its own right. You’ll find beautifully restored farmhouses, contemporary cellars designed by architects, sometimes art exhibitions among the vats, terraced gardens or a table where you can lunch facing the vines. These places combine the pleasure of the wine with the pleasure of the eye; they lend themselves particularly well to a visit as a couple or to a more contemplative day. We cover these addresses, where wine and terroir speak to one another, in our gourmet guide to the Luberon, which sets tasting within the wider pleasures of the Provençal table.
What to taste in our vineyards
The two appellations that surround Gordes offer complementary profiles, and that is precisely what makes visiting several estates so rewarding.
- The rosés, pale and delicate, are the signature of a Provençal summer: enjoy them chilled, ideally at the end of the day.
- The whites, built on grapes such as clairette, white grenache or vermentino, win you over with their floral liveliness and freshness.
- The Luberon reds, supple and fruity, are a perfect match for lunch on the grass.
- The Ventoux reds, fuller-bodied and marked by the garrigue, gain depth from the altitude and the cool nights.
Tasting the same grape variety at two neighbouring growers lets you grasp, in an instant, everything the word terroir conveys: the same grape, but two expressions, two hands, two philosophies.
Our tips for a successful visit
A day among the wineries is all the more enjoyable for a little planning. Here are the recommendations we happily repeat to our guests.
- Choose a designated driver who stays sober. This is the golden rule. Tasting is a gourmet’s pleasure, not a matter of quantity: you taste, you savour, you spit if need be, since every cellar door provides a spittoon.
- Keep it to two or three estates a day. It is far better to take the time to talk and tour the cellars than to rush from stop to stop.
- Phone before you drop by whenever an estate is small or you are travelling out of season, to avoid finding the doors closed.
- Bring a cool box. In summer it protects your purchases from the heat of the car, especially the whites and the rosés.
- Ask about buying. Many estates offer reduced prices by the case; some will even ship your bottles home, which makes the journey back so much easier for guests who have come from afar.
Making the most of the terroir
Wine is just one facet of our terroir, and a day among the wineries naturally calls for other gourmet discoveries. Before or after a tasting, many of our guests love to seek out the specialities of Provence: truffle, candied fruit, melon, which make for a memorable lunch between two cellar doors. The Provençal table is also unthinkable without the olive oil of Provence, its mills and its tastings, whose ritual is in fact a close cousin of wine tasting. And to stock up on fresh produce before heading back to cook at the villa, nothing beats a morning at one of the most beautiful Provençal markets in the Luberon, where you’ll often find the very same growers at their stalls.
Le Clos de Manon, your base camp at the heart of the vineyards
A ten-minute walk from Gordes, our villa with a private heated pool is perfectly placed to roam from one estate to the next, from the Luberon to the Ventoux. Many of our guests love to set off in the morning with an empty cool box and come home in the evening with the boot full of a few finds, then uncork the bottle of the day on the terrace, facing the sunset over the Luberon. To enjoy this wine-lover’s interlude at the heart of Provence, simply check our availability and choose your dates: the vineyards, and all their growers, are waiting right on your doorstep.