Gerard and Marie-Claude Bonnet founded the estate of La Bastide Saint Dominique in 1976, and it now encompasses 27 hectares of vineyards. The winery and family’s house, which is an old 16th century chapel, is situated in the enclave of Courthezon, walking distance from the town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Gerard and Marie-Claude live there with their son, Eric, and his wife, Julia. Eric is now the winemaker and Julia manages many of the winery’s business affairs and works in the tasting room. Transparency and respect are the ultimate goals of the Bastide St. Dominique wines. They follow the principals of lutte raisonée, meaning they apply treatments to the vineyards only when the alternative is a substantial loss of their crop, and intervene as little as possible during the winemaking process. Eric uses the same parcels every year for each wine, as well as the same winemaking techniques. He believes the use of traditional farming and winemaking combined with the use of clean, modern equipment best elicit the elegance and minerality of their terroir. The husband and wife team of Eric and Julia are part of a young and exciting group of winemakers in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, whose wines are challenging the more famous names of the region in quality. Julia explains their approach: “Old-fashioned Chateauneuf is very gamey, very heavy. We prefer freshness, elegance, minerality.” Organically grown grapes.