The last winery on our walk was Domain Souverain, which we found by accident after leaving the previous winery.

We saw it and thought that maybe it was open, just as we were to take a look the wine maker drove up and opened up for us.

He had a few good wines to try, I tried 3 reds and Pam has a white or was it a Rose?

I bought a couple of wines from him, the reserve which was a 2012 – no idea what we paid for them. I think I had had enough by then.

He saw I was loaded up with wine and seen that we were walking so he offered to put the original purchases in a 6 pack box, and then put on a sticky tape handle.

We then walked home, happy with the day.

The next winery we visited was called Le Gravillas, this is visible from our balcony.

This is a larger establishment than the previous winery we visited. Upon entering you can see the large barrels which you can buy your bulk wine from. The prices ranged from 2.60 Euro per litre for a Cote de Rhone White, 2.50 Euro for a Cote de Rhone Red, the dearest was about 25 euro per litre and the cheapest was a Vin De Pays at 1.15Euro per litre.

I asked if I could try this 1.15 per litre product, and it was better than a bottle we tried which was 4 Euro.

But there were other wines for us to try, Pam did not like the whites, the reds were very nice, I bought two Le Gravillas, Sablet, 2011 Venanges for 7 Euro each.

I am drinking one as I write this and it is about 2pm on Sunday.

It is very mouth filling, spice, with a mineral character, 14%.

Probably needs some food really, maybe I will get some cheese and salami.

I also enjoyed the very aged Le Gravillas Gigondas Vendanges 2006, a bit more expensive at 14 Euro but oh so much nicer. I bought one of these as well.

http://www.cave-le-gravillas.com/

After visiting the tourism shop where I had a few wines to taste we started walking and found our way to another winey and their tasting. We were heading to Le Gravillas which we can see from our house. But we first came across a small winery called Domaine Du  Pourra.

It was not the most inviting looking place from the outside but the wines there were very nice. All of the wines are Red, predominantly Grenache and Syrah, and all of the wines have no oak. s.We spoke to the wine maker for quite a while until he had to go and do some real work. He also ages the wines in concrete vats for up to 5 years.  We bought a couple of the cheaper ones – a Domain Du Pourra, Mont Bayon 2009 from Séguret which is the village next to Sablet.  He has a very small operation but you can tell he loves his passion for making great wines.

The price was 13 Euro for the 2009 vintage which is made from Grenache,  Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Cinsault.

www.pourra.fr