Winemakers for five generations, the Perrin family owns Château de Beaucastel, the southern Rhône estate often dubbed (to their slight annoyance) “the Pétrus of the south”. “It is one of the greatest estates of Châteauneuf-du‑Pape,” says Wines of the Rhône author Matt Walls. “In many ways it’s a yardstick by which others can be measured. It creates wines of gothic splendour, cathedrals in a bottle.” The Perrin name is also touched with glamour: since 2012, the family has had a 50 per cent stake in Brad Pitt’s Provençal rosé brand Miraval.
So when the Perrins announced in 2018 that they were razing their famous Beaucastel estate to the ground, and commissioning a five-star team – including architects Studio Mumbai and Studio Méditeranée and garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith – to re-envision it, it piqued the wine world’s interest. Seven years on, the radical new design is finally open for business.
I arrive expecting something grand – maybe even a bit flash – so I’m taken aback by the new €15mn winery’s outward understatement. It hunkers down among the rows of sunbaked vines, not unlike a Moorish fort. It’s only once I cross the threshold that this place’s distinct, even slightly spiritual, atmosphere starts to take hold.
