An Ode to Domaine Tempier

A Provençal family and their wines

Domaine Tempier Bandol Rouge “Migoua” 1991

Hello! If you are just picking up the Grape to Table newsletter, thanks so much for joining to learn more about wine, food, and life. We have just wrapped up my origin story (click here to read), and we are diving into fun content focused on meaningful time at the table with delicious wine and food. For now, my newsletter is free and you can find all the content by clicking here – basically a little Grape to Table website created by the great folks at Substack.

There are times that call for special bottles, meals, cards, flowers – some recognition that yes, this moment matters. I was lucky enough to have one of those a few weeks back with my partner in wine (and all else) – celebrating many years together. Luckily both of us share the same vision of an ideal night – at home, with the dog, grilling a ribeye, roasting potatoes, maybe some creamed spinach. And thankfully I had just the bottle to elevate the experience – Domaine Tempier Bandol Rouge from 1991. 

If all of this is Greek to you, l am here to explain because Domaine Tempier is some magic worth knowing about, some Greek worth deciphering. Domaine Tempier is the story of Lucien Peyraud and Lucie “Lulu” Tempier. 

When the Tempiers married in 1936, Lulu’s father gave them a farm in their Provencal region of Bandol. Today, Bandol sparks some recognition (at least in wine nerd circles), but at the time this was simply a lovely countryside where wine was made by local families for their own consumption alongside the crops they grew, the fish they caught, the game they hunted. There was a history of planting the Mourvedre grape in the region, but folks had begun to rip it out in favor of easier, high yielding varieties. Luckily for us, the story goes that Lucien tasted an older bottle of Mourvedre and saw potential. He committed himself to the grape (alongside other Rhone varieties – Grenache, Cinsault, a bit of Syrah), and thus the makings of a legend began. 

While the wines are now famed and sought after, the wine itself seems to only be half the story. The other half belongs to Lulu, her cooking, her hospitality, and the way of life they created at Domaine Tempier. Over the years they attracted many food lovers and welcomed them with open arms. Most notable of these would have to be Richard Olney, an American food writer (born in Iowa in 1927), who spent most of his adult life at a farmhouse in Provence near the Tempiers. It was there he met Lulu and Lucien in the mid 1960s and basically became an honorary member of the Peyraud family. He wrote the sublime cookbook/memoir Lulu’s Provencal Table, and as I have mentioned before it is a cookbook worth having – filled with tales of a way of life that’s sadly disappearing alongside beautiful, historic photographs, and of course recipes for all sorts of enticing Provencal dishes (like the anchovy butter I wrote about a few weeks ago). 

But back to Olney himself. It was through his friendship with burgeoning wine importer Kermit Lynch that the Tempier wines found their footing in the United States. Lynch described the wine as a great discovery upon first tasting at wine show, but it was not until he spent time with Olney in Provence that he truly came to know the Tempiers and fell in love with them and their wines. In Lynch’s words: “Domaine Tempier is a wine – it is also a family; exuberance and finesse are the traits common to both.”

So what are the wines? There is of course the aforementioned Bandol Rouge that we enjoyed (promise I am getting to that!) which is based on Mourvedre but with some Grenache, Cinsault, and perhaps a bit of Syrah. (Note: there is the overarching Bandol Rouge and then three different single vineyard bottlings of the red as well; we experienced the single vineyard Migoua.) Next, there is the Bandol Blanc which is centered around mostly lesser known native French grapes you might not have heard of, namely: Clairette, Ugni Blanc, Bourboulenc, and Marsanne. This blend makes for a medium bodied, savory white, that like the red can be aged for years! And finally, there is the rosé, which is THE most difficult to come by! Like the red it is based on mostly Mourvedre blended with equal parts Grenache and Cinsault. It is supremely lovely at all times but truly unfurls itself after a few years in the bottle (yes, some rosé can age!). If you ever see a bottle of this, snatch it up quickly! 

I have been lucky enough to have the rosé and white a handful of times, and while I have tasted the red I have mostly stashed my bottles away in the wine cooler as I know we will enjoy them more with age. But a few years ago I happened to receive an email from Kogod Wine Merchant (a reputable online wine seller based on the west coast). Kogod will sometimes have back vintages of classic wines, and such was the case that day when they offered up some bottles of the 1991 Migoua. Of course, they were not inexpensive, but I was in need of a couple of special presents for wine friends, and this seemed perfect. Being one of those people who unabashedly buys gifts for myself while shopping for others, I could not help but snag one for our house. While my friends drank theirs immediately upon receiving and gave rave reviews, I promptly put mine in the cooler and nearly forgot about it. Fast forward a couple of stressful years, and here I found myself this winter ready to open and celebrate. 

I knew that I did not want to decant this wine so I took it out of the cooler and set it upright for a couple of hours to let any sediment (from aging) fall to the bottom. Then a couple of hours in advance I removed the cork using the Durand wine opener, which I highly recommend for any older bottles (with potentially fragile corks), but honestly the cork was in great shape. So far so good! Next, I took a good whiff just from the top of the opened bottle, and hooray it smelled sound (nothing weird and none of the most common wine flaw – cork taint). I poured just a touch in a glass, sniffed, swirled, sniffed again, sipped. Ah yes, I thought, this is going to be fun. 

We poured our first glasses while grilling the steak and then enjoyed the bottle over a leisurely dinner. My rough notes centered around things like: mushrooms, balsamic, dried red fruit, dried apple skin, very good cinnamon sticks, cumin, palo santo, cedar, and finally iron. Honestly, this is just the beginning of a descriptor for this wine. There was so much going on. In body and texture it drank more like terrific older Burgundy than say an older Bordeaux. It was not big and brooding but rather lovely and elegant. And it was very much alive! Older wines can be a crap shoot, and their more umami aromas and flavors are not for everyone. But I felt like this one was in a sweet spot. I cannot imagine it could continue to evolve too much more, but I am sure there are examples of even older Tempier bottles drinking beautifully!

While I could truly write on all day about the Tempiers, let’s end it here so there’s more for you to explore on your own. I truly cannot recommend a deep dive into the Tempier legend enough. Perhaps purchase Olney’s book and treat yourself to a relatively current vintage of the white or rosé to enjoy now (those retail around $60) and a bottle of the red to stash away (the general appellation Bandol retails around $70). Kogod has all of these and so might your own local wine shop. As I mentioned, the rosé usually goes quickly, but the white and red are not impossible to find. Kogod even has some back vintages of the single vineyards, but they have jumped WAY up in price! And if you live in my neck of the woods I did just receive word that my good friend Josh at Wine & Company does have some back vintages of the single vineyards arriving soon!

While Lulu passed away in 2020 at the age of 102 (wow!), the domaine lives on via her family and a longtime employee, Daniel Ravier. 

P.S. If you happen upon a 2017 Bandol Rouge that one is extra special as it celebrated Lulu’s 100th birthday and has a special label with a gold swing embossed on the label (like one found in a tree) as this was Lulu’s favorite exercise!