Having worked this soil since she was a young girl, Hélène Thibon is at one with her vineyards in and around the tiny hamlet of St Martin d’Ardèche. There is 17ha in all, on a mixture of soil types. The model at Mas de Libian is the farm as a self sustaining environment instead of a production unit. It’s an ideal that resonates through the wines, which ooze all the natural wealth and charm of this beautiful terroir.
The vineyard and farm work at Mas de Libian is decidedly old school. The vines are hand-tended and harvested, while Nestor, the family’s Comtois workhorse still makes it through the vines where possible, pulling the plow. No chemicals are used and very low yields are the norm. As the Mas de Libian biotope has come to offer an incredibly healthy environment for grape-growing, Hélène has little recourse for sulphur which is often not used at all during the winemaking process.
The fresh 2010 Vin De Petanque has all the purple-fruited effervescence that you could wish of a youthful Grenache while the two Côtes du Rhônes are tighter, darker and denser. Those that tried some of the wines at Melbourne’s Return to Terroir tasting in March will need no convincing. The hallmark of the Libian wines is vibrancy and vitality of fruit. They are luscious, brightly fruited and crunchy wines that clearly reflect an intuitive and honest dedication to the Domaine’s stony terroir and gnarled, old bush vines.
