VIGNOBLES KANDLER - Château Tourril & Domaine des Pentelines

The story of Vignobles Kandler started 30 years ago when our Franco-German family decided to acquire land in the hinterlands of the Minervois region, in Roubia, an area between sea and mountain, between the medieval town of Carcassonne and the Canal du Midi. Château Tourril takes its name from the Pierre du Tourril, an ancient Gallo-Roman signal tower that has looked over this scrubland for over 2000 years. The second generation of the family took over in 2014 and decided to expand the winery, switch to certified organic production, work to boost its profile and export sales. Driven by his love of wines from southern France, Stephan Kandler met Bertrand Hardy, himself from a wine-making family in the Rhone valley, and together they decided to make their first organic wine together, a 2016 vintage at Bertrand's Domaine des Pentelines, close to Avignon. After three vintages made jointly, Bertrand sold Stephan the marvellous 24 hectares of organic DPO Côtes du Rhône Villages Gadagne, a pebble-based terroir identical to that found in Châteauneuf du Pape. The characteristics of these two terroirs, these two appellations, are profoundly marked by the history and climate of southern France, and the influence of the Mediterranean in particular. The geographical similarities are heightened by our expertise in typical grape varieties that allow each terroir to express its own unique personality.