Belonging to a wine appellation allows you to directly link your wines to a region, to its local characteristics and to compliance with precise specifications.
Historically, Scamandre Rouge, like all the estate's wines, was offered under the Costières de Nîmes label. Located in the Petite Camargue, this appellation is the most southern of the Rhône Valley wines. We can in particular describe the terroir as “Rhodanian” par excellence with, among other things, the famous rolled pebbles.
Like the world of wine which is evolving rapidly towards greater freedom, research and creativity, we want to think outside the box. Today, we offer high-end wines with a strong identity, wines made from “non-appellation” grape varieties.
In Scamander, we grow 7 red grape varieties and 10 different white varieties. On 12 ha that's a lot but above all it offers us a wide range of flavors for the blends. This is how we planted Petit Verdot. This grape variety, well known in Bordeaux, enriches the Pomerols and Saint-Émilion. It is a fairly late variety which expresses itself very well on our terroir. Unfortunately, this grape variety is not authorized by the Costières de Nîmes appellation. Should we stick to the grape varieties on the list or free ourselves from the appellation?
We have made our choice, Scamandre Rouge 2019 will be a Vin de France. It’s up to us to experiment with taste (while respecting our quest for excellence of course)! Other non-framework grape varieties should be planted soon. For the next vintages, Scamandre Rouge and a few still confidential vintages will therefore be in Vin de France. The rest of the range (Terrasses d’Hortense) will be or will remain in IGP Gard.