Geographical Aspects

One of the largest AOC wine regions in the South of France, Côtes du Rhône (C.D.R.) is an area of 200km from north-south and 100km from east-west along the Rhône river. Since 125B.C. Cotes du Rhone has been cultivating grapes and making the wine. The total vineyard area of AOC C.D.R. is around 60,000 hectares (ha) and produces 2,200,000 hectolitres of wines annually (source inter-rhone 2009). More than 80% of the production is red wine. The main grape varieties and the styles of wines are different between Rhone Septentrionale (north) and Rhone Meridionales (south). Maison Plantevin is located in one of the most beautiful small villages in France called Séguret in the Southern Rhone. The history of grape cultivation and vinification in this village has been recorded since 13th century. The area has a typical Mediterranean climate characterised by the local wind, “Mistral”. Thanks to this strong dry wind, the grapes of this area benefit from long hours of sunshine all around the year, which give higher sugar levels and great maturity in the grapes and the large diurnal temperature difference maintains balanced acidity in the grapes.

The grapes of the Plantevin wines come from more than 40 different vineyard sites interspersed throughout the area defined as Côtes du Rhône Villages. The total area of vineyards is more than 30 hectares (75 acres) and surrounds the villages of Séguret, Sablet and Plan de Dieu. The vines are planted on various types of “terroir”, from hillside to flat land.

Soil Types

Soil types in our vineyards are diverse. The soils of Seguret and Sablet vineyards found at the foot of a Jurassic limestone mountain, the Dentelles de Montmirail, consist of a single clay soil, stony argilo-calcaireous, clay with layered limestone, and brown silex from the Miocene. The flat land of those vineyards consists of alluvium sand and shingle. The soils of the Plan de Dieu vineyards sit on the vast terraces of alluvial soil from the Riss. The surface of the vineyards is covered with the calcareous gravels. We sometimes find the fossils of seashells from these ancient soils.