PEDRES BLANQUES
Banyul sur Mer
Pedres Blanques was founded in 2017 by a young Japanese couple of winemakers: Rié and Hirofumi Shoji.
Rié and Hirofumi met while studying oenology in Beaune. After their studies, both went and worked for different winemakers in Burgundy. Rié spent time in Chambolle-Musigny with Frédéric Mugnier of Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier and Dominique Le Guen of Domaine Hudelot-Baillet; and Hirofumi worked in Saint-Romain for Frédéric Cossard of Domaine de Chassorney.
After a few years, the couple finally decided to start making their own wine and began looking outside Burgundy for more affordable vineyards. They eventually found and bought 3.5 hectares of vines from a retiring vigneron in Languedoc-Roussillon. Located in the hills above the seaside town of Collioure, the vineyards is planted with 50 years old Grenache on granite.
The Domaine takes its name from the Catalan “white rocks” in reference to its extraordinary granite terroir.
In the Vineyard
The vineyards are farm organically. Up high, the vineyards are exposed to a strong wind that maintains extreme dryness and air-circulation. The vines here are not subject to frost or fungal diseases and the use of copper is often not even required. Due to its steep and remote location, Rié and Hirofumi do everything manually in the vineyard.
Growing their holdings, Rié and Hirofumi have planted massale selection cuttings of various local varieties, given to them by the iconic Alain Castex of Les Vins du Cabanon.
In the Cellar
Rié and Hirofumi vinify and age their wine in Banyuls, in a facility they share with other local winemakers.
100% whole-clusters fermentation is preferred by the young couple. After harvest, the whole grape clusters are fermented thanks to indigenous yeast in tanks for about a month.
The wine is then pressed and transferred by gravity into old barrels of various sizes (500L, 350L, 228L) for 6 months.
The wine is bottled unfiltered and unfined with only a touch of sulfur.
Pedres Blanques
The only wine produced and sold by Rié and Hirofumi at the moment is made from their 30-50-year-old Grenache vines planted over granite and schist soils between 250-300 metres above sea level.
