Wine, Wind and Olives

Nestled at the southern edge of Les Alpilles (The Little Alps) is a terroir rich in limestone, known as Les Baux de Provence. This spectacular piece of France has the perfect combination of warm days, and nights cooled with mountain air. The soil is mineral-rich and strewn with stones and shale. Wild herbs abound, enriching the earth with their aroma, and the famous Mistral (a harsh, cold and usually dry wind from the north that can blow up to 100 days during the year) fiercely blows year-round, and especially throughout the winter months. All these conditions create the perfect nexus to grow grapes that produce wines rich with flavours that reflect this powerful land.

In this picturesque landscape, Mother Nature too creates the perfect setting to produce olives. The region is small, but it is renowned for olives, olive oil, tapenade and many other derivative products. The trees are tended all 12 months of the year; the blooming season is April through June and the harvest takes place in November—depending on the weather, it can carry through into January. The Mistral provides the dryness needed throughout the year but especially during the spring, as the trees blossom and begin to bear fruit, when dryness is essential to producing a quality crop.

The Mistral blows with such force it can literally blow the clouds out of the sky, and this is why Provence is an unusually sunny climate. When the rest of France has stormy and cloudy skies, this region is rarely affected for long; The Mistral will clear skies in less than a few hours while Paris, famously, can be overcast and rainy for days on end. The Mistral also blows away dust and creates a crisp clarity of air and light that the region is known for; a light that has inspired a great many painters, from the Impressionists onwards.

Le Mas de la Dame (The Women’s Farmstead) is a family domaine owned and managed by sisters Anne Poniatowski and Caroline Missoffe. Their grandfather, Aguste Faye, acquired the 16th-century property in 1903. The farming here has been purely organic for over 30 years. The domain is AB (Agriculture Biologique) certified and bears the official state logo for organic products.

The Mas de la Dame served as a setting for a novel by Simone de Beauvoir, and in 1889 was the subject of a painting by Vincent van Gogh. As the coldest winter in Provence in 20 years winds to an end, and the days get a little longer and the sun shines brightly through the chill of the Mistral, one might feel as if they were actually in a van Gogh painting: crows swirling in the blue sky, olive trees warped by the wind of the Mistral. In fact, all of nature is contorted by the cold force of these penetrating winds, and the colours are warmed by the brilliance of the sun as it moves closer to summer.

The Mas de la Dame is an enormous property that encompasses 132 acres of vines and 60 acres of olive groves. Soon all these trees and vines, hardened by another winter, will wake from their short months of hibernation and begin the cycle of producing fruit once again. The grapes that are produced here are Grenache, Syrah, Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon, which are the components for the reds and the rosés. Rolle, Clairette, Semillion and Roussane make up the white wines.

March is perhaps not the typical time of year to visit Provence, a place known as the land of the sun, but it serves as proof that this rich agricultural belt that produces endless bounties also needs the rest and repose of the winter months. This leads to the rebirth of the spring and summer, which in turn lead to the autumn harvest.

If you are in search of a suntan and plump red tomatoes, this may not be the time of year for you to visit Les Baux de Provence, but if you are content with a little windburn and moments spent sipping rosé in solitude before the onslaught of tourists in high season, this may in fact be the perfect winter retreat.

Le Mas de la Dame
13520 Les Baux de Provence, FRANCE
04 90 54 32 24