Les Vacances 2022 | Wayward Wines

Val de Combrès
Les Vacances 2022

£12.75

  • Region Luberon, Southern Rhône, France
  • Grapes Grenache
  • Vineyard Biodynamic
  • Cellar Fermented with native yeasts, unfiltered & unfined, no additional sulphites
  • ABV 13.5%
  • Size 750ml

About the Wine

Val's lightest, juiciest red. 100% young vine Grenache, half macerated in whole bunches for 10 days, half direct-pressed, before being blended together to rest in fibreglass cuve then bottled the following spring with no additions.

Although a little deeper in colour than previous vintages, lightness and purity of fruit is the goal here. There is a small amount of residual sugar which gives the bountiful cherry and raspberry fruits a confected quality, with anise-like spices. A fluid wine with pronounced luminosity and just so much fun to drink - 'the grenadine of the estate' as Val likes to call it.

About Val de Combrès

Valentin Létoquart’s story is one that we’re hearing more and more in our exploration of small producers with principled approaches. Up until 2013, Val de Combrès first vintage, he had been growing grapes and supplying to a large Rhône co-operative. Whilst this can provide a producer with a reliable source of income, for Valentin it became too much to see his thoughtful, at this point organic vineyard work essentially going to waste when the harvested grapes were thrown in with those of other growers working on a more industrial level, with chemical herbicides and pesticides, poor soil health and barren, monocultural vineyards. Such was his inspiration to take the plunge and go it alone - we’re so glad he did.

Valentin now tends just under 8 hectares around the villages of Oppède and Ménerbes at the southeasterly stretch of the Rhône valley, in Luberon. For the most part, his wines stand apart from the traditional style of the AOC here, helped in part by the elevation of the vines. They sit in harder to work plots that rise towards the hills that flank the south of the region and serve as a border with Provence. They are remote and secluded, mainly surrounded by forest and away from the low-lying plains - perfect for Val to carry out his meticulous biodynamic vineyard work, utilising plant-based treatments and plowing by horse. 

Fittingly, in the cellar there is an appropriate lightness of touch; fermentations are carried out in concrete and steel vessels using the native yeasts, sometimes in whole bunches with carbonic maceration, or by de-stemming and gently macerating the grapes. Both are methods that avoid a heavy extraction. They are generally bottled the spring following harvest and with no additions whatsoever. The resulting wines are bright, exuberant and often explosively fruit-driven, particularly in the case of his vibrant, juicy reds. Despite his exacting standards in the vineyard, when it comes to the wine itself, Val transmits a sense of fun and playfulness - each radiates charm and an infectious energy that really draws you in. Val de Combrès are wines for good times.

Find out more about Val de Combrès