After leaving La Capte, we headed to the seaside village of Bandol to get a map of the vineyards. The majority of the Bandol vineyards seems to be in Le Castelet, so that’s where we headed in search of Domaine Tempier. In our search for the vineyard, which we had a great deal of difficulty finding, we happened across Domaine Ott, which we had heard of from some of our friends in Antibes. So we stopped and checked out the beautiful grounds, and went in for a dégustation (tasting). It turns out that at least three of our Antibois friends had a story about Domaine Ott, which, until recently, had an office located here in Antibes, just down the street from our apartment.
We finally found our way to Domaine Tempier, where we had been talking about visiting for a couple of years. The winery was established by Lucien and Lucie (a.k.a. Lulu) Peyraud who were given some vineyards next to the family home by Lulu’s father in 1936. Their first vintage appeared in 1943 amidst the destruction of World War II. It was Lucien who brought appellation status to the wines of Bandol and who created the requirement for AOC Bandol wines to consist of 50% mourvèdre grapes, which have been growing in Bandol for hundreds of years.
Lulu Peyraud has also been an inspiration to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and her recipes are featured in Richard Olney’s 1994 cookbook, Lulu’s Provençal Table.
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