Despite the directions that she gave us, we couldn’t even see a track and certainly not the one referred to in Marlène’s directions! Domaine Peyre Rose, its name inspired by the local pink stone and flowers, made the journey more than worthwhile. When Marlène Soria bought the land in the early 80’s, there was nothing there but rocky and overgrown garrigue and a deserted hamlet with no road access. Gradually, with imagination and determination, she transformed it into one of the region’s top vineyards. Her policy of not selling her wines until three and a half years after their vintage, which started due to lack of custom, now has restaurateurs and cavistes clamouring for her rare bottles. We’ve been lucky enough to snaffle the last remaining cases of her older vintages. Such is her quest for perfection that she refused to release any of the 1999, 2000 or 2001 vintages as she felt that the lining of the new vats had damaged the flavour. She therefore sold all those wines to the local cooperative, bought new vats and continued with the 2002 vintage.

Her wines are so massively powerful that you can almost see the anti-oxidants! Intriguing and very different even from other Syrah dominated domaines.