A great Bandol made from 90% Mourvèdre and 10% Grenache: velvety, complex and built for ageing, grown on blue Triassic marl in the Restanques terraces high above the Mediterranean.
Plump dark fruit — blackberry, black cherry, cassis and elderberry — alongside tree bark, liquorice, leather, cocoa and roasted herbs such as rosemary, thyme and juniper.
Palate
Charming and expansive, with sweet cassis notes, firm tannins and invigorating acidity; primal and animal in character.
Character
A true vin de garde: velvety rather than aggressive, complex rather than loud, a structured wine that needs time and rewards it.
Pairing
Wild rabbit with porcini risotto and thyme, pigeon with fried beetroot crisps, or crêpes with Bleu d'Auvergne and blackberries.
Notes
Only the best and oldest vines at around 250 metres, in an amphitheatre of Triassic rock; 20 months of ageing plot by plot in barriques, tonneaux and foudres; the estate has been certified organic since 2019.
Tasting note
Colour & appearance
Deep, dense violet-red, opaque right to the rim – a wine that visually announces there is real substance at play.
Nose
A bouquet that invites you to dive in: sweet blackberries, black cherries and blackcurrants meet elderberry and wild raspberry. Beneath lies a spicy, almost untamed layer of tree bark, liquorice, leather and cocoa, accompanied by roasted herbs – rosemary, thyme, juniper. Garrigue in a glass.
Palate
Charming and expansive on the attack, with sweet cassis notes, before Mourvèdre reveals its backbone: pronounced tannins paired with a stimulating acidity that keeps the wine taut. Primal, animal, complex – velvety rather than aggressive, entirely in line with the style Éric de Saint Victor pursues.
Terroir & origin
Bandol, Provence – and from the very top: Pibarnon sits at the highest point of the appellation. The centuries-old stone terraces (restanques), built by hand, rise up the slope like the tiers of an amphitheatre, each level offering its own microclimate and views stretching to the Mediterranean. Only the finest and oldest vines at around 250 metres altitude are used for this wine, rooted in soils of blue Triassic marl with clay, limestone and chalk as well as prehistoric fossils – a geological rarity.
Grape variety & vinification
90% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache. After roughly three weeks of fermentation, the wine is aged parcel by parcel over 20 months in carefully matched barriques, tonneaux and wooden casks of various provenance. Cellar master Marie Laroze brings Burgundian precision to the estate’s 220 individual parcels.
Food pairings
A wine for intense cuisine: wild rabbit with porcini risotto and thyme, pigeon with deep-fried beetroot crisps or – bold yet rewarding – a crêpe filled with Bleu d’Auvergne and blackberries alongside a wild herb salad.
Special features
A true vin de garde: patience here is not a threat but a promise. The estate has been organically certified since 2019, and anyone who usually knows Mourvèdre as austere will discover its sensual side at Pibarnon.
