• Home
• Estate
• Our Wines
• Press
• Buy Online
• Distributor
• Contact Us
• Testimonial

Dry Wines

For more than 70 years, the Domaine Boudau estate has exclusively made Rivesaltes natural sweet wines.

In 1993, when Véronique and Pierre Boudau took up the reins, they installed new policies for cultivation and commercialisation in order to meet a new challenge: to make dry wines and sell by the bottle. Their aim was to obtain recognition of their land and its distinctive characteristics as well as for the traditional grape types of the Roussillon region.

As the years went by, after many experiments and having gained experience in the individuality of grape varieties, an array of dry white wines came into being.

As a result, in 1996, they launched a range of fruity, lively and pleasurable wines using Petit Closi rosé and Petit Closi red grapes, expressively sunny wines that encapsulate the generosity of Mediterranean lands.

Then in 1997, they added Muscat Sec to their trio of vins de pays, bringing with it new exotic and floral flavours. That same year, Le Clos made its entrance, again a wine in the spirit of pleasure and with aromatic richness and diversity worthy of an AOC Côtes du Roussillon Le Clos. Following on in 1998 came the Tradition and Henri Boudau brand wines, Côtes du Roussillon Villages aged in barrels for 12 months, both more full-bodied and genial wines with intense and complex bouquets.

In 2000, as if to close one millennium and start the third, Patrimoine was launched, expressing the very essence of Grenache.
Always receptive to their land, in order to realise its full potential, Véronique and Pierre Boudau put all their wine-making know-how and heart and soul into creating new wines.
 

The Domaine Boudau estate, founded in the 1920s by the grandfather of current owners Véronique and Pierre Boudau, gained recognition for its Rivesaltes and Muscat de Rivesaltes natural sweet wines. During this era, the estate did not produce any dry wines; the natural sweet wines were made via mutage. This process was discovered in the 13^th century under the reign of the Kings of Majorca, by Arnaud de Villanova. It involves halting alcoholic fermentation of the must by adding 96°-proof wine-derived neutral spirit. This allows a portion of the grapes’ sugar to be conserved. The sweet natural white wines can only be produced using the Grenache (black, white and grey) and Muscat grape varieties (Alexandria and Small Grain). This type of product requires a maximum amount of exposure to sunlight and stony, arid land to give quality grapes with low yields. This is why these wines are only found in the Mediterranean basin.

Amongst the 4 types of Rivesaltes offered by our land are the young red (garnet), amber, reddish-brown and “over-age”. From these, the Domaine Boudau estate has chosen to make a Rivesaltes Sur Grains rouge (from Grenache vines located in limestone soils) and a Muscat de Rivesaltes (made using Alexandria Muscat grapes alone).

The 100 % Grenache Rivesaltes Sur Grains rouge is made by mutage of the grapes with on often long alcoholic maceration (3 weeks to 1 month, see the tasting notes).

The natural sweet white wine Muscat de Rivesaltes is produced through direct pressing, i.e. by a short period of “skin contact” steeping of the Alexandria Muscat and/or Small Grain Muscat. The mutage is carried out during the liquid phase (see the technical data sheets).