Vin de Pays de Vaucluse Rouge 2018, Domaine des Tours
Time as Ingredient: Why Reynaud Waits When Everyone Else Rushes
In the modern wine world, time is money. Wine sitting in the winemaker’s cellar is wine that is not being sold, not being paid for, not existing. The economic logic is ruthless: wine is released as soon as the law permits.
Emmanuel Reynaud does not care.
The wines of Château des Tours and Domaine des Tours are routinely released almost a decade after the harvest. Not because storage is expensive. Not because the market demands it. But because Reynaud feels the wine is not yet ready. And because he asks nobody’s opinion.
The Winemaker’s Clock is Not the Market’s Clock
When the 2018 Domaine des Tours was released, nobody asked Reynaud when it would be ready. He decided it himself — quietly, discreetly, without announcement. The wine left the cellar when it left — not a day earlier. This is not a posture. It is a conviction rooted deeply in the estate’s history.
The Reynaud family purchased the 40 hectares in Sarrians in 1935. The old mas — flanked by two distinctive towers, hence “Des Tours” — has housed four generations since. Emmanuel took over from his father Bernard, brother of the legendary Jacques. He grew up in these vineyards, knowing every stone, every vine, every corner of the cellar. Patience was not a virtue he had to learn. It was simply the air he breathed.
No Temperature Control. No Rush. No Compromise.
The wines ferment spontaneously with native yeasts — often for more than a year, slowly and coolly in underground concrete tanks. No temperature management. No pressure. The CO2 blanket of fermentation naturally protects the wine. Then come the old barrels, various sizes, no new wood for the basic red wines. No fining. No filtration.
The result is every time the same miracle: a wine that looks like little and tastes like much. That reveals its origin without betraying its recipe. That lives in the glass — and not in the marketing material.
The 2018 is the perfect illustration of what happens when an exceptional year meets an exceptional winemaker who does not regard time as an enemy, but as the final ingredient.
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