Domaine le Roc des Anges
Domaine le Roc des Anges
[Wines named for angels, born of schist 750 million years old]
Roc des Anges was founded in February 2001 by Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet. Marjorie grew up near Côte-Rôtie and has been around wine since childhood; she trained with Yves Cuilleron and Pierre Gaillard in the northern Rhône before taking her qualification in Montpellier.
The domaine owes its name to a single Carignan vine planted on a vein of quartz. The pale soil that breaks through the surrounding black schist is known locally as roc blanc, the white rock. Taking the angel as the emblem of that quartz seam, the couple named the estate Roc des Anges — the rock of the angels.
The vineyards sit on very old schist, some 750 million years old. Formed from compressed layers of pure clay, it is soft and flakes easily into thin sheets. The bedrock is less than a metre thick — ideal for vines to drive their roots deep, and to recover their vigour through the drought and heat that arrive in June.
Most of the wines are raised in large concrete vats. Wood, used judiciously, can turn a hard and expressionless wine into something supple and articulate, so they work mainly with fine Burgundian barrels of three to five years, alongside a few new ones.
"Keep it simple" is the rule here — and the hardest one to follow. It means observing, tasting, waiting for the right moment, and steering each wine towards the fullest expression of its terroir. Élevage is never fixed: every vintage asks for something different.
