If one were going to make a movie about a wine producer, it would be hard to find a family better suited than Domaine Viret.
You might call biodynamic farming a witchier take on organic. The Viret family takes it two (or twenty) steps further than biodynamics, with their own philosophy called Cosmoculture. Their goal: to harness and harmonize with the energy of the universe. The vineyard was built on an ancient Roman site in the Côtes-du-Rhône, bordering an underground spring. This, they say, imbues the unique energy of the region, an essential element of terroir.
The vineyard work that Alain Viret and his son Phillippe do includes channeling magnetic fields to protect and nurture their vines. They do a sort of acupuncture treatment on earth herself, spearing large rocks into the ground in order to try to bring all the energy fields into balance. The vineyards can be planted in any number of arrangements, including spirals. Wines spend at least four years within concrete or clay amphora made by a local potter.
Upon his first visit, Neal Rosenthal remembers thinking, “Is this actually a winery? Are we inside a Stanley Kubrick film? Am I still asleep?”
Regardless of your feelings on the philosophy, these wines are iconic, particularly Emergence. A blend of grenache, syrah, and carignan from a single parcel, this wine demands your attention and then your respect. Only 420 bottles made it to the US this year.
