Thinking about which wine experience transitioned me from a wine consumer to wine lover has been a cause for a joyous journey of self reflection!

I cast my mind back to the early nineteen seventies; I grew up in the New Forest and home was a collection of buildings that had once been a old coaching inn many hundreds of years old. What’s more it had a cellar.

I remember the first time my small frame pulled back the huge trapdoor and I descended into the cellar below. Like a figure from ancient mythology waiting to cross the river Styx. I think my imagination was running wild and I saw a three headed dog before I fumbled for the light switch! As the 40W bulb partially illuminated the cellar I saw several rows of dusty bottles. As a curious ten year old I noticed some of the bottles were covered in wire netting. On the labels the words Marqués de Riscal which meant nothing to me until several decades later! This however was not my catalyst.

I fast forwarded eight years; my first job was in retail management with a major supermarket chain. After a few months I had the pleasure of running the beers wines and spirits section. How exciting I thought naively! Little did I know that it would mean much longer hours, hauling cases from the secure part of the warehouse and having to apprehend any shoplifters who wanted their own Christmas cheer on the house!

Despite this, I learnt things like Saumur was a méthode champenoise. I remember
being asked for a case of Chablis Premier Cru by a sophisticated lady and wondering what event she was planning!

I can recall other names from that time; a Vin de Pays de L’Ardeche from France, a Jumila from Spain and an Entre deux Mers from Bordeaux. These names seemed enchanting and conjured up in my mind travels to lands to discover their origin. They provided a natural escapism from the grey tedium of South West London but as you may have guessed despite providing a frisson of interest it was not yet that magic spark that would ignite a passion for wine.

In my late twenties I became a Guardian reader thanks to Malcolm Gluck. His no nonsense approach to wine writing based on the simple premise of how to spot the best wines for under five pounds made his column appealing. His first book “Superplonk” became my bible as much as Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Guide today!

I celebrated my 50th Birthday back in 2016. A good friend and someone with whom I regularly enjoy discussing all things related to wine, took my wife and I to dinner at the Quality Chop House, in London. To accompany this carnivorous celebration of bone marrow on toast and Chateaubriand he had brought a Magnum of Domaine de Trevallon 2001 from his cellar. I was more excited than a child in a candy store!

The wine was a triumph! Deep ruby in colour with a hint of garnet. A nose that was consistent with its age of mushrooms, game, garrigue and forest floor. On the its superb balance of acidity and tannin levels were still sufficiently high for me to know it would last for another 10 years or more. Developed fruit flavours of fig, prune and black currant were interwoven with more forest floor and game with leather too. I remember thinking that it was distinctly Bordeaux in style and like one of the grandest of all wines from that region.

The Trevallon was a really nice touch as it took me back to five years earlier when my wife and I were planning a short trip to the Luberon. The same friend, suggested we try to visit Domaine de Trevallon.

Not knowing the legend of Trevallon I inquisitively asked why especially as they produced a declassified wine. My oenophile friend began to narrate the story of Eloi Dürrbach.

In 1950 Eloi’s father fell in love with the area around Trevallon and purchased a property with some land. The Alpilles close to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence provided a fairly challenging terroir for a vineyard. Yet Rene Dürrbach confided in his young son Eloi that the terroir would one day produce great wine!

Limestone is the dominant rock form here and integrating the vines into this landscape was a major piece of work. The rocky ground was blown up and the limestone fragments ploughed back into the ground.

The first vineyard was planted in 1973. The choice of grapes guided by heritage and reason. Cabernet Sauvignon had been grown in Provence in the pre-phylloxera era and Syrah a grape that was permitted and thrived. Eloi’s passion for wanting to make a natural wine led him to choose to declassify his wine to a Vin de Pays rather than betray the personality of the wines.

That was it! That was the moment I feel in love with wine. It was when the magic of the back story inspired me to want to discover, to live and breathe that wine. To want to see for myself what was so special about the terroir of the Alpilles. To want to meet Eloi or his daughter Ostiane, who is now the winemaker at the Domaine to truly understand their passion and then taste exactly what the wine was all about!

So on a sunny day in August 2011 we travelled along the windy roads of The Alpilles and found ourselves at Domaine de Trevallon. We were so lucky Ostiane had no other visitors and took us for a walk around the estate. I have enough grasp of French to understand her and the story came to life!

I love learning about wines that I’ve never tried before, but for me what takes it to another level is when that act of learning uncovers a back story that is as good as the wine itself. It means that when you pull the cork from the bottle and take the first sip your olfactory senses work overtime as your brain processes the sensory information with the story. For me it’s the ultimate legal high when that synergy between the back story and the wine comes to life as it did in the cellars of Trevallon when Ostiane pulled the cork on the 2008 red that we tasted!