Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2006

Le Vieux Donjon, as it exists today, was created in 1979 with the marriage of Lucien and Marie José Michel. Both Lucien and Marie José's parents owned vineyards in the region, and those holding were combined to form Le Vieux Donjon. The domaine covers fourteen hectares of vineyards (all farmed organically), thirteen planted to red grapes and one planted to white. The Michel's holdings are primarily in the North and Northwest of the AOC, but they also have small plots in the Southwest and East. Their most important parcel is Pialons, and the grapes from the 2008 come from that parcel as well as those in Cabrieres, Bois de Boursan, Les Marines and Le Mourre de Gaude. The soils are mainly limestone and clay, and are studded with the famed galets roulé, the round, rust-colored stones which were left behind after the retreat of the Alpine glaciers which once covered the region.

Since 2008 Claire Fabre has been the winemaker at Le Vieux Donjon. She is the third generation of the Michel family which was founded by the father of Lucien Michel, Marcel Michel, who did the first bottling at his domain in 1966. Since 1979 Marie José and Lucien Michel have run the property. Claire is married to another winegrower, Adrien Fabre of Domaine la Florane in Visan. In 2013 Claire's brother François joined her at the domain, and the two of them became officially responsible for the property together with their mother Marie Michel.