Domaine Rouge-Bleu was created in 2007 by Caroline Jones, an Australian-trained enologist, and Thomas Bertrand, a former UK wine trade professional turned vigneron. The couple farms 8.5 hectares in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes, between Gigondas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, using organic certification and biodynamic principles across old, deep-rooted vines grown on stony, ancient riverbed soil.
This 2023 bottle is labeled Vin de France, a designation the estate uses for single-varietal bottlings that fall outside standard Côtes-du-Rhône blending rules. Origine is made from 100% old-vine Carignan, a grape that was once widespread across the Rhône Valley but has become increasingly rare as growers pull it out in favor of higher-yielding varieties. Farmed with the same low-intervention, biodynamic approach as the rest of the estate, hand-harvested and fermented in concrete with wild yeast, it shows the elegance and character that well-farmed old-vine Carignan is capable of, something the grape rarely gets credit for in mass-market wine.
The result is a rare, characterful single-varietal red that makes a case for one of the Rhône's most overlooked grapes.