La Grange Saint André

La Grange Saint André is Olivier Pichon's small domaine in Souvignargues, near Sommières in the Gard. A former social worker from Lyon, Olivier had no formal wine training and learned from his friend, the vigneron Thierry Forestier, who sold him his first hectare in 2015. His first vintage was 2016. He now farms around four hectares of sandstone, limestone and sandy clay hillsides at about 100 metres, with vines from 10 to 50 years old.

Everything is hand-picked. Reds go into tank as whole bunches for three or four days, with no pumping over, then rest in steel. Most wines get no added sulphur, the whites a small dose. Le Marmot, mostly Cinsault, is the everyday red and one of the best value bottles we stock. Grenache des Grès comes from 50-year-old vines, La Colonel and Blanc Seing are the whites, and A Souvi t'as Soif is a barely fizzy, off-dry rosé.