The pursuit of excellence is deeply rooted in the history of Château Mont-Redon. The exceptional family-run vineyard in the southern Rhône Valley resists any imposed rhythm and has laid down its own law for the maturation of its wines. With success - and has been for many decades."Being a winemaker means having a long-term vision. We are responsible for a terroir that is several million years old, where the vines planted by our ancestors enable us to produce great wines today. With this understanding, we know that we are planting the vines today for the generations of tomorrow." With this all-encompassing awareness and in constant pursuit of capturing the heritage entrusted to them in expressive, noble growths, the Abeille-Fabre family of winemakers is now in its fourth generation of living their vision of winemaking at Château Mont-Redon in the top appellation of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The first vines that laid the foundation for a fascinating wine history here were already planted in Roman times - at the foot of a small, bumpy hill that protected them from the mistral wind. This elevation inspired the first settlers to name the vineyard thanks to the topography of a "round mountain": "montem rotundum" became Mont-Redon in French. Since then, this place has been planted with vines, the vineyard having shrunk to just 2.5 hectares after the phylloxera crisis. It was at this time, in 1923, that Henri Platin decided to acquire the estate. Today, four generations later, there are 100 contiguous hectares, making Château Mont-Redon the largest vineyard in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. In addition, the family acquired another 15-hectare vineyard in the Côtes-du-Rhône appellation as well as a 35-hectare vineyard in the Lirac appellation, which are located right next to each other in the village of Roquemaure.
Long before the classification of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation in 1936, the visionary Henri Platin set about grouping the various parcels of the estate in the north-west of the growing region, because he recognised the exceptional nature of the terroir on the plateau of Mont-Redon. He cleared the undeveloped land and planted the vines. Today, the Château has the privilege of owning vineyards on no less than three types of soil in the appellation: on the pebbly soils of the plateau with a base of thin layers of clay, on a compact sandy soil called Safres and on Urgonian limestone soils. These three terroirs are the basis for the complexity and quality of the wines. Each of these terroirs has its own characteristics that give the grapes a specific sensory note. Coupled with low yields and natural cultivation (in 2018, the estate was awarded the "High Environmental Value" level 3 certification), the result is the inimitable identity and qualitative consistency for which the wines from Mont-Redon are known.
Care and respect are two key values carefully lived by Pierre Fabre, Mont-Redon's farm manager and winemaker. To get the best out of this special terroir, his teams carry out bespoke artisanal work on each vine. Traditional bush vine pruning has been used in the vineyards for a century and continues to be practised from generation to generation. Hand harvesting is a basic requirement, a second sorting takes place in the winery. Thus, every step up to the maturation of the growths testifies to the striving for excellence. The striving to produce wines with great depth and harmony.