The Fresh Taste of Roussillon - published on JancisRobinson.com

Domaine Treloar, run by English Jonathan Hesford and New Zealander Rachel Treloar, is farmed regeneratively: without herbicides or broad-spectrum chemicals, minimal ploughing, minimal fungicides, natural fertilisers and native-species cover crops. Their 10 ha (25 acres) of vineyards, mostly old vines, are dry farmed. Grapes are hand-picked and winemaking is free of additives bar low-level sulphites at the end of fermentation. My visit to Treloar was at the end of the trip and our tasting was brutally curtailed to just three wines, zipped through very quickly, but Hesford (a seismologist and submarine-control-system designer in a previous life) is one of Roussillon’s finest, most thoughtful, intelligent, ever-questioning winemakers and his VVGV wines always over-deliver in terms of unmitigated deliciousness and understated elegance.