Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/552044
{ SOMMjournal.com } 7 colored chairs and ornaments made from old oil drums from Senegal. Each of the three estates is different. Château de Selle and Clos Mireille are in the Côtes de Provence appellation, while Château Romassan lies in the appellation Bandol area. The common theme is that all three produce a rosé wine plus one other wine: red at Château de Selle and Château Romassan, and a crisp and fruity white blend from Sémillon and Rolle at Clos Mireille. Three elegant, almost identical bottles of rosé were waiting: Clos Mireille, a Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah blend from relatively young vines in a clay and schist soil, has a very delicate pink color—the palest of the three, in fact—and lots of fruit; but it's not just about fruit, there's a structure and freshness too, while the influence of the sea, no more than a couple of hundred yards away, lends an edge and a bit of bite. Château Romassan (Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Grenache) has a noticeably deeper pink color and is more intense altogether, while the Château de Selle (Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon) has a slightly smoky and spicier nose. All three are from the 2013 vintage and are young and fruity which, according to Jean-François, is what consumers look for in a rosé these days, but he added something that was revealing. Regulations allow for the wine to be sold from the end of December following the harvest and while many producers do that, at Domaine Ott they prefer to wait a little longer because rushing the process risks harming the wine. So it's at least April 1st before the previous year's wine is released. "That's earlier than it used to be. When I was younger we used to bottle only in August" says Jean-François, "and that was only because we had to make space for the new harvest." So although today's wines make delightful drinking when young, they'll happily keep a couple of years longer. "We don't set out to produce 'bêtes à concours,'" explains Jean-François, wines designed for competitions which are immediately expressive and explosive and capture the attention at the expense of complexity and interest after that first rush. "We're looking for something more silky." The Art of Patience I asked Jean-Francois what makes the wines of Domaines Ott stand out from others. After a moment's reflection, he explained that it's a combination of several things: consistency, unremitting focus on quality and above all, patience. He quotes the example of his first har - vest at Château de Selle in 2002. Unusually for this part of France it was an awful year weather-wise and only 60% of the harvest was considered to be good enough to use for Domaines Ott wines. Commercial considerations might have urged them to maintain the quantity of bottles produced and use the sub-standard grapes, but they decided to take a 40% hit on quantity in order to maintain quality. The finance man - ager must have had to swallow hard. At Domaines Ott, quality is a result of many cumulative measures. The planting density is a modest 5,000 plants per hec- tare, and while the appellation rules allow 55 hectolitres of juice per hectare, at Clos Mireille they only use the best 40 hecto- litres: hence the words "Coeur de Grain" found on the bottles of rosé. The harvest is always done manually; no herbicides are used, so all the vineyards are ploughed to suppress weeds, unless a flock of goats, or sheep can be found to do the job. "This is not a profession for people who are in a hurry" insists Jean-François. "At any given time about ten percent of the vine - yard is left fallow so as to let the ground recover. We wait a full four years before replanting the vines; during that time we sow a variety of cover crops and then it takes another four years before the vine produces a crop of sufficient quality. "We love the vines rather than the wines—everything starts from the soil." It's a phrase other winemakers use, but at Clos Mireille I get a sense that they mean it more, a sense of the deep attachment the cousins have to their roots. The Next 20 Years and Beyond No one can know exactly what the future will hold, but Christian has some clear ideas about the subject. "The day you say, 'That's it. We've found the perfect way to make wine and we make the best wine in Provence!' that's the beginning of the end.," he says. "We can never afford to be satisfied." So clearly new challenges lie ahead and, as if to illustrate this, in 2014 a fourth estate was acquired. It was perhaps to be expected; each of the three preceding generations purchased an estate and Jean-François and Christian have merely continued what has become something of a family tradition. As one would expect from this family, there's no set deadline to bring the new vineyards into production—it will take as long as it takes. But Jean-François and Christian, who are both in their 40s, accept that it may take 20 years or so to work the soil and replant the vineyards so that they are ready to produce wine worthy to be labelled Domaines Ott. No matter; they will have made their mark, the quality of Domaines Ott will have been maintained and they will be content, no doubt, to know that there's another gen - eration on its way to take up the reins. Domaines Ott wines are imported by Maisons Marques & Domaines. (Top) Château Romassan lies in the Bandol appellation. (Above) The purchase of Château de Selle in 1912 laid the foundations for Domaines Ott. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOMAINES OTT