Domaine des Escaravailles "Le Ventabren" Cairanne

I’ve seen this before with wineries, particularly European ones. Something changes, and suddenly the wines take an enormous leap forward in terms of quality. While I haven’t worked with this winery very long, I consider them head and shoulders above the typical Cotes du Rhone, jumping out of their category and into the realm of outstanding, world-class wine.

So what  has changed? I can’t be positive, but I am pretty sure —the winery rolled generations. In France, with wineries, almost always one of the kids is expected to stay home and eventually manage the family business of making wine. In past times, I used to see examples of this becoming more of a burden, leading to family unhappiness; the youngest daughter forced to remain home under a domineering father, running hoses and pumps around the winery for years with no end in sight to her manual labor. More frequently, in current times, I see sons and daughters going away from the family business, into college, and only eventually, after exploring the world, coming back and joining the family business; resulting in an extremely happy day for the family and for new ideas blossoming in the winery. 

When I met Madeline Ferran, the young, young scion of Domaine des Escaravailles, it was clear to me that this was a woman with direction and talent, and that she was running the show, and that this show is on the course to superstardom. She’s also young enough that my tour guides for the visit recommended that my older son of 18 years try and hit on her, hopefully scoring the ultimate  French wine connection. He demurred. But no matter - Madeline’s wines are simply sensational!