2023 - An intense and promising vintage.

The harvest began on Wednesday 24 August with the picking of our white grapes, followed by our reds (Syrah, Cinsault, Grenache, etc.). The harvest is always done by hand, followed by a rigorous sorting of the 58 hectares that make up our vineyard.

The harvest is staggered according to the different stages of ripeness of the grape varieties and climatic emergencies (drought, heatwave, rain, etc.).
Teams of pickers are given strict sorting instructions and start very early in the morning when the grapes are still fresh. The days were still very sunny and the temperatures were higher than normal for August and September 2023.

This is a very intense 2023 vintage, as the weather has been very hot and very dry for months. We’ve hardly seen a drop of rain. This is very worrying for our vineyards and their biodiversity, because we can now say that this drought has been going on for years.

To accompany our vines, Biodynamics helps us to strengthen and fortify organic life and exchanges between the soil and the plant, while allowing our grapes to express the full potential of our terroirs and their characteristics. This allows us to produce wines that are delicate, rich, balanced and complex, while leaving as much room as possible for the purity of the fruit.

A promising 2023 vintage with excellent berry quality, rich, concentrated juices with great aromatic potential and complexity, freshness, minerality and elegance.

We look forward to finishing the harvest and introducing you to our new vintages, and wish you a fine end to summer and a good start to autumn.

With kind regards,

Madeleine & Ambre Delorme

Ideally located at the crossroads of Provence and Languedoc, the Domaine de la Mordoréeproduces some of the greatest vintages of the Rhone Valley : Châteauneuf du Pape, Lirac, Tavel.

Our philosophy has always been to produce the greatest wines possible. To achieve this goal we have selected the best parcels of land, the highest grade grapes and developed environmental friendly wine growing methods. The vinification and maturation of our wines combine both tradition and modernity.

The fruits of our efforts were quickly rewarded with prizes, in the Paris Agricultural Fair as well as other fairs where we have won over 160 medals since 1985. The specialized press and the greatest wine reviewers, like the Revue du Vin de France, Wine Spectator, or Parker have acknowledged and praised the quality of our wines.

The Mediterranean area granted us a climate and beauty which are exceptionally favourable to tourism. The whole environment appeals to discovering a unique wealth of landscapes and culture : Avignon, Arles, Nîmes, the Camargue, the Pont du Gard, the Luberon, and the Cevennes are minutes away, offering easy and boundless access to gastronomy, culture, nature or architectural heritage.

This outstanding environment naturally inspired us for the name of our  Domaine : the Mordoréeis the poetic nickname used locally for the woodcock that flies over our lands during its migrations.

We strongly believe the way used to obtain a result is at least as important as the achievement itself. Of course, we aim towards the highest possible quality, but not at any cost : a result alone would by no means suffice.

Our code of ethics is profoundly based on respecting the gifts of nature through our soils and landscapes. This code of ethics is consequently applied to all the stages of production, ensuring that future generations may live in harmony with our heritage. We are but passers-by on Earth, our presence is ephemeral and we are not here to exhaust our resources but to develop our land’s riches.

Our actions are thus continuously guided by environmental awareness. This philosophy has guided us for 15 years. Our efforts have been particularly forceful over the past 5 years, seeking to support tradition with innovative solutions. The key word of this approach, both in definition and spirit, is respect. 
Respect for nature, respect for man, respect for our customers and respect for our pledge.

These inviolable rules are the very basis of our estate : the rules that steer our concepts and actions today, and that we hope shall show the way tomorrow.

Unique terroirs

To know the history of our terroirs is to listen to them as a caring servant!

Each element contributes to a stratigraphy of successive layers whose vine exploits only the last meters.
A winemaker who has experience knows how to recognize the best soils, he knows how much he is indebted to the land for what he receives through the fruit of the vine and the wine. Good terroirs exist and are revealed by the patience and the requirement of the winemaker, who knows how to listen to them.

To let the terroir reveal itself is, among other things, not to knock it out with weed killers, chemical fertilizers or pesticides. It’s just being humble. To know the history of our terroirs is to listen to them as a caring servant.

Located in Tavel, the terroirs of the Domaine de la Mordorée are the legacy of millions of years of tectonic movements, climate change, glacier flux and ebb, overflowing by the sea, lakes or huge rivers.

The vineyard consists of 55 hectares (135 acres), on 38 different parcels, which provide with a rich, wide range of soils and climates. The soil is a mix of clay, chalk and sand with pebble stones. The improvements at the Domaine have been incredible: new pneumatic presses, new stainless steel vats, new destemmer, new vinification and aging plant, and aging in oak barrels for the top wines. A

ll the grapes are raised by culture raisonnée which is very close to organic viticulture (intervention in the vineyard only when necessary).  The yield is reduced in the vineyard by ébourgeonnage (de budding in spring) and vendanges vertes in summer (green harvesting).  Oak aging for the top wines in special barrels like “jupille” for 10 months.  No expense is spared at this Domaine to achieve quality.