Hiding in plain sight

The mountain is famous - the wines should be too. 

Ventoux is best known for one thing - Mont Ventoux.

It’s the Tour de France’s greatest challenge and most iconic climb.

But it turns out that Ventoux is also one of France’s biggest wine regions, producing over 30m bottles a year.

Yet despite its scale, its wines have lived in the shadows for far too long.

Welcome to big red heaven

Situated in the south-east of France, near Avignon, Ventoux is blessed with the perfect conditions to make world-class reds.

You’ve got a patchwork of ancient soils on rugged hills, hot Mediterranean sunshine, and cold air blowing down from the mountain to keep the grapes balanced and fresh.

But Ventoux has always been the Rhône’s big volume driver. For years, much of that wine disappeared into the cooperatives - while its more famous neighbours, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, took all the glory.

The tide started to turn in the late 1990s, when vineyards that had traditionally supplied the cooperatives started getting bought up - often by outsiders.

The attraction was pretty obvious - land here can be 20 times cheaper than in Châteauneuf!

A new frontier

One of those blow-ins was a young German called Corinna Kruse Faravel.

Born and raised in Düsseldorf, she was fascinated by wine from a young age. But back then, if you wanted to work in wine, you pretty much needed to be born into it.

So she moved to the Rhône, trained in wine, and heard about Ventoux - this ‘beautiful far east’ where young winemakers could actually afford to make their own wine.

Drawn by the promise of ‘a little piece of land with a beautiful cabanon’, she eventually came across a 12-hectare property, nestled in the foothills of the Dentelles de Montmirail, near the village of Lafare.

She later added two small parcels in nearby Beaumes-de-Venise - best known for its sweet Muscat, but capable of making seriously impressive reds too.

What a place to visit

I’ve been to Ventoux twice now, both in winter, when the place was almost completely empty.

Believe me - a stay and dinner at Hotel Les Florets, followed by a morning stroll around Gigondas, is good for the soul.

The occasional MAMIL speeding by on a bike aside, Ventoux is absolutely spectacular.

The whole place is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve - teeming with wildlife, lush forests, wild herbs and little pockets of vineyards.

It’s also the truffle capital of France - its answer to Piedmont, over the other side of the Alps.

And of course there’s Mont Ventoux, always looming in the distance.

Now you can taste the wines

Corinna’s new vintages have just got here, which is perfect timing as winter seems to have arrived too. We have

• Martinelle Ventoux 2023 - a classic Rhône blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, this is dark, lush and herbaceous with a lovely freshness running through it too. John Wilson raved about it in The Irish Times on Saturday - ‘seductive, big concentrated dark fruits, herbs and well-integrated tannins’
• Martinelle Beaumes-de-Venise 2024 - a big yet balanced red from distinctive iron-red soils, in an area better known for fortified wines. Think good Châteauneuf - at a fraction of the price. ‘Textured, pure and very appealing’ according to Jancis Robinson.

Don’t just take my word for it

John Wilson travelled to Ventoux recently, and wrote about it in The Irish Times at the weekend.

He highlighted four wines which you can buy from various retailers around Ireland, ranging from €9 to €25.

But only one of them, Martinelle Ventoux at €19.97, was singled out for its value for money.

‘A seriously good wine at a great price’.

And that, in a nutshell, is the WineSpark promise.