"Why did we plant Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah at Trevallon? It was really a combination of circumstances," explained Eloi Dürrbach. "My father knew Georges Brunet, the owner of Château Vignelaure, near Aix-en-Provence, who was one of the first people to plant Cabernet Sauvignon in Provence. He had read in the "Etude des vignobles de France" (A Study on French vineyards), by Doctor Jules Guyot, who was a famous agricultural scientist back in the second half of the 19th century, that Cabernet Sauvignon used to be grown in Provence before the phylloxera crisis and that, blended with Syrah, it could produce excellent wines.

Indeed, in this part of the Alpilles, the Cabernet Sauvignon grape develops some very idiosyncratic features. It is very spicy, with aromas of cinnamon and pepper. On its own, it can be rather austere and has harsh tannins. Syrah is used to make it mellower. Since we are in the northern part of the Alpilles, where it is colder, the Syrah ripens later and so it does not have that candied fruit flavour typical of Syrah grown in Southern France...
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