Winegrowers’ Portraits Le Grès
Domain la Millière
Quietly but with character
In Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Michel Arnaud perpetuates the family passion for working the land.
Under his leadership, the domain was exclusively devoted to wine production with a success that owes everything to its exceptional soil, bringing together in one unique area the soil mosaic that constitutes the famous appellation of Cotes du Rhone. Meeting with a discreet man, but not without talent.
Michel Arnaud
In the zone of Cabrières, between the Rhône and Courthézon, in the North of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, extends the main part of the vineyards of the Domain La Millière. Here, Michel Arnaud knows the weight of the family inheritance.
“I represent the fifth generation of a dynasty of wine growers. Both first ones had chosen the mixed farming but, in the early forties, my grandfather, Fernand, acquired this domain to specialize in wine. With eight hectares in Châteauneuf and two hectares in Côtes-du-Rhône, he lived fully his passion and participated in the life of the property until 1978. He was a very thoughtful man, a wise person who taught me a lot. I was fond of his stories and his art of the work. Even today, 60% of what I know, I have got it from him … With Aimé, his father, Michel rolled up sleeves very early and signed his first vintage in 1983. “I was only 22 and, in parallel, we still continued the fruit production. But I chose to focus my efforts solely on viticulture in 1991 and especially, I did not stop buying vineyards to increase their surface until 27 hectares today”.
The strength of soils
More than half of the property is on the Châteauneuf appellation
“with an essential peculiarity: we harvest on four different terroirs. On the famous rounded pebbles, we found essentially Grenache and this association gives all its typicity to La Millière. That is to say, wines marked by mellow tannins and great minerality. We owe to sands a little more freshness and minerality while clays provide length and depth in mouth to our wines. Finally, the limestone soil stands for roundness in terms of structure”.Michel Arnaud, who produces an average of 60,000 bottles, insists on the notion of freshness, and makes it an essential element of the character of his wines.
“It is always there, even if the wine is powerful, regardless of the vintage. More importantly, it persists over time. This is what gives the touch of finesse and elegance which allows appreciating our wines in different ways.
Tasted young, they do not saturate nose and mouth, and then, after 4-5 years they reveal scrubland aromas with hints of pepper and sweet spice on the finish. And as all this has nothing aggressive, our wines express a lot of femininity. 'Sexy', say the Americans ...”
A more modern image
Because those wines
“that we drink, not that we taste”, conquered at first the clientele outside the borders of the hexagon.
“Export represents 70 to 80% of our sales. It is a reality that began about twenty years ago and did not stop developing since, to the point that the U.S. market is the most important. Tourists who know our wines in their countries sometimes come during summer to the domain as if they were on a pilgrimage”. Ontario, Australia, and Northern Europe are generally solid bases of marketing.
“But we begin to enter Eastern Europe, we feel a recovery in Japan, and South Korea is an emerging market”.
However, the reputation of La Millière does not rely only on Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
“The Côtes-du-Rhône of which we produce 30,000 bottles and the Côtes-du-Rhône Villages (10,000 bottles) are processed according to the same philosophy: an identical care in all stages of plant growth and of fruit development, then hand harvesting and finally sorting that occurs on the parcel”. A concept of tradition to which Michel Arnaud wants to bring touches of modernity.
“In 2008, we launched ‘Miss Rose’, a Rosé 100 % Grenache approached as a wine brand. Noticed by Parker, it is reserved while it is not yet bottled”. Miss Rose should not long remain single because the winemaker has imagined a red wine called ‘Myster M’. And to give another image of La Millière, he can lean on a production of 26,000 bottles in local wine of Vaucluse and envisage so a new range for the French market.
Open-mindedness on the future which does not stop him from having the eyes of Chimène for the oldest vineyards of the domain. Old vines planted in 1891, those gnarled stocks are always so resistant to this damn Mistral which so often sweeps over the appellation.
Jean BERNARD
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Domaine la Millière
Quartier Cabrières - Le Grès
84100 Orange - France
Tél.: +33 (0) 4 90 34 53 06
Fax: +33 (0) 4 90 34 85 57
www.la-milliere.fr
