Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure, a reference in Bergerac

Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure is located in Colombier, near Bergerac in the Périgord, a region known for foie gras and truffles, as well as for its wines. And that could well change! For several years now, a few wine estates have called Monbazillac, Bergerac and Pécharmant upwards, thanks to intelligent and thoughtful work, combined with beautiful terroirs. The vineyard of the Ancient Cure is part of it.

Vines have been cultivated on the estate for five generations, but Christian Roche is only the second to put his wines in the bottle. Independent vigneron since 1984, he decides in 1989 to return to the fundamentals: the terroirs, the vines, the earth. He converts his estate into organic and begins various experiments, with the objective of extracting the quintessence of each terroir with a complete range (dry white, reds, sweet syrup of Monbazillac).

For Christian Roche, 90% of the quality of its wines is due to the raw material: the vine. He says he still has a lot to learn, but today, after 30 years of experience, he has understood that his land offers him the opportunity to vinify and raise great wines, which will age ten years without problems .

The wines of the Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure are not aperitif wines. They are in keeping with the culture of the region: they are powerful, structured meal wines. But power and structure are here complementary of elegance and length in the mouth, without forgetting aromas of an exceptional richness when we gave ourselves a few years of patience.

The range is exemplary and really stand out of the crowd, as it dominates the Bergerac appellation, in red as in white.

In dry white, the vintage l'Abbaye comes from a sort of over-matured grapes, and therefore from a drastic selection of the grapes, which is the fame of the vineyard. Moreover, the Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure also produces sweet wines on the Monbazillac appellation. These wines result from manual harvesting with multiple passages (with the optimal maturity of the grapes), always with sorts to isolate the best berries. Christian Roche mixes botrytised grapes (which bring strength and complexity to the wine), with raisin grapes (method of over-saturation by natural drying of the grapes in the air, which give the wine acidity and concentration), all based on grape varieties Traditional sweet wines in Monbazillac, muscadelle and semillon.

The red wines also do not follow the tradition: if Christophe Roche owns 12 hectares of red, mostly composed of cabernet, he also grows malbec and merlot. It privileges the best grape of the year, to put it in the honor in its cuvées, according to the vintage.

The wines of the Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure are at the same time full of freshness, tannins, structure.