Domaine de la Rectorie

Domaine de la Rectorie is the winery of brothers Marc and Thierry Parcé on the Mediterranean coast, in Collioure, right next to the Spanish border. The wine plots covered with local grape varieties rise steeply and terraced from the coast to a height of about 400 meters and the influence of the sea on the climate is immediate.

Domaine de la Rectorie produces mainly red wines, but also white, rose and sweet wines. The wines represent the AOC classifications of Collioure and Banyuls, the difference of which is not geographical but determined by the winemaking technique used: Banyuls are fortified wines, Collioure unfortified. As early as the 1980s, Rectorie produced the fruity Rimage-style Banyuls as a pioneer in the region, and in the 1990s began producing dry wines from Grenache Gris and Grenache Blanc grapes, which later led to the formation of AOC Collioure.

Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Grenache Gris grapes are grown on 30 different plots covering about 30 hectares. Each grape variety is vinified separately. The densely growing vines are mostly more than 50 years old and the harvest amounts are moderate. The soil has clay, sand and slate. The breeze blowing from the Mediterranean cools the climate, especially in the summer, when the thermometer readings sometimes become unbearably hot inland. Dry white wines are harvested at the end of August and red wines at the beginning of September. Early harvesting allows freshness to be preserved. Sweet wines are harvested late, sometimes only in October. Harvesting is done manually.

The vineyards have been in the Parcé family for over a century. The winery was born largely in the hands of the brothers' great-grandmother, Thérèse Parcé, who took care of the estate for more than five decades, until 1969. When the younger generations had settled down and Thérèse couldn't find a winemaker to continue, the farm started producing grapes for the local cooperative.

In 1976, Thérèse's great-grandson Marc returned to Banyuls and started working on the winery he inherited. In 1981, he asked his brother Thierry to come to the place to treat a sick employee. Thierry, with his wife and small child, also decided to settle in the family's old homestead. The only challenge was that the work did not produce enough to support both brothers, so Thierry moved to work at a nearby winery. In three years, he learned the secrets of winemaking from traditional winemakers, some of whom had fled the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s to the side of France. During these years, Thierry also got the idea of making his own wine. Marc warmed to the idea and in 1984 the brothers made their first own wine. Among the first producers in the area, the gentlemen started working their paddocks with horse power. Gradually, the activity deepened and today Domaine de la Rectorie vinifies all its wines itself, each of which represents its unique Mediterranean origin.

https://www.rectorie.com/