Domaine de L’Amaurigue
An outstanding winery in Le Luc, Cotes de Provence, France.Domaine de L’Amaurigue
In 2015, Pier 71 Wines was invited to a Cotes de Provence event at One Market Bar in San Francisco. As we were interested in a supplier who was looking for an importer for the United States market, we attended the event. After visiting several booths, we arrived at the Domaine l’Amaurigue station and we had the pleasure of meeting Fleur (the daughter of the owner) and the winemaker, Jean-Marie Quef. Instantly, we had a connection with the team. Already trusting our instincts, we tasted their wines and chatted with them. We immediately knew they were going to be a perfect fit for Pier 71 Wines.
About Domaine de l’Amaurigue
Domaine de l’Amaurigue is a family owned winery and like us at Pier 71 Wines, the family believes in quality, not quantity. It didn’t take long to become the first importer of their wines in the United States market. Domaine de l’Amaurigue produces award winning rosé wine from Cotes de Provence, France. Since 2016, we have been gaining steam and our partnership is very strong. We like to visit the winery in Le Luc, France, at least once a year.
We hope one day you too, will enjoy the beautiful winery and warm hospitality at Domaine de l’Amaurigue! There is nothing like the South of France, where the new world meets the old and some of the best wine in France is produced. Until then, here is a little bit about the winery, production and aging program.
The De Groot Family has owned Domaine de l’Amaurigue since 1998. Dick and Eugénie as well as their two children, Fleur and Melvin, fell in love with the charms of this exceptional property.
Originally, Domaine de l’Amaurigue was a farm built in 1786 and the estate was mainly made up of forests. The first vines were planted in the 1960s thanks to the owners at that time, the Excoffon family, who selected the best varieties to be planted on the best parcels of the estate.
Since their arrival, the De Groot family has completely renovated the living parts of the estate and the ageing vineyard respecting the originality of the place. One of the major steps in this historical restructuring of the Domaine de l’Amaurigue estate was the building of a modern winemaking cellar. Actually, until then the grapes had been taken to the village’s cooperative cellar.
Thus, since 2000, Domaine de l’Amaurigue estate has been making all its wine on its own land. The Quef family is an incredible steward of the property. Today the wines are distributed in France, the rest of Europe, US and China.
The entire vineyard is classed AOP Côtes de Provence. The strength of Domaine de l’Amaurigue lies in its power to bring together tradition and modernity with the aim of producing great Provence wines.
They have an à la Carte harvesting system with precise monitoring of the grape maturity. The techniques are adapted depending on the vines and the type of wine that they want to produce. Meticulous selection and double sorting of the grapes on the bunch means they only keep the very best grapes to produce the wine. The architecture and positioning of the production facility allows them to work 100% by gravity.
Parcel selection is also one of the keys to their wine quality. Depending on the ages of the vines and the maturity of the grapes, the parcels are selected and the wine is made from them separately.
The cellar is equipped with the latest winemaking technology with temperature control and automatic inserting of the tanks with nitrogen in order to safeguard the aromatic potential of the grape varieties. Particular attention is paid to the work by gravity with a constant focus on perfecting the quality of the wines.
The white and the red wines are aged in French oak barrels for 6 to 14 months in an old vaulted sheepfold that dates from the start of the century renovated to make an ageing cellar. This ageing allows them to obtain wines with surprising finesse and aromatics.
The team at Pier 71 Wines is confident that the wine lover of great Provence wine will discover at Domaine de l’Amaurigue, wines that pleasure the palate and deliver authentic character, while refreshing to the soul.