Domaine Les Bruyeres (David Reynaud)

Domaine Les Bruyères was started in 1955 by Georges Reynaud when he planted 20 hectares of vines in Beaumont-Monteux by the Isère River. Starting very small, it was only after his grandson, David Reynaud, took over the estate at 28 years old when things began to escalate. Five generations of the Reynaud family succeeded one another at the estate. Family history made possible by David Reynaud’s mother, Marceline, who made the link between her son, who was to finish his studies, and Georges, his father-in-law, who took care of the estate after the war at the end of the 1980s. When he constructed a new winemaking facility in 2003, the creation of wine on the estate was all organic, and they were certified biodynamic by 2005. Today, the estate stretches 20 hectares with 14.5 hectares in Crozes and 5.5 ha in IGP Collines Rhodaniennes. All green work is done by hand. Yields are low, around 35 hl/ha, which gives deep and fresh wines.

Directed by David Reynaud since 2000, the Les Bruyères estate aims to produce great wines by working in the greatest harmony with nature. Certified organic and biodynamic agriculture, the estate favors cultivation by hand at each stage: disbudding, lifting, elimination of inter-hearts, harvesting, sorting on the table… These traditional methods, gentle on the fruit and using little fossil energy, are then relayed by gravity, to the cellar, by an elaborate system of vats with natural shapes and materials.

The Syrah grape variety occupies a preponderant place on the Domaine (about 87%), this grape variety is the soul of the Crozes Hermitage appellation. David Reynaud also works with other grape varieties, namely Merlot and Viognier for his Vins de Pays cuvées. David also works with Marsanne and Roussanne for certain cuvées.

Cultivation is carried out by hand for disbudding, lifting, green harvesting and the elimination of inter-hearts. The harvest is also manual, and the grapes are sorted on the plot and then on the sorting table in the cellar. The yield is 35 hectoliters/hectare. The terroir is characterized by clay-limestone terraces with soil drained by detrital pebbles.

Thanks to a buried cellar, the grape enters the scene from above, with the simple movement of gravity. The red grapes are housed in a raw concrete vat, which provides the oxygen necessary for alcoholic fermentation and good aging, and the white grapes find their place in ovoid concrete and terracotta vats.

The white grapes are aged in ovoid concrete vats. These vats create different temperatures and pressures, causing a so-called “Brownian” movement: the fine lees are resuspended and bring freshness back to the wines through an autolysis phenomenon.