The vendanges, the French grape harvest, runs from late August into October, and Karma has two estates sitting right at the heart of it all…
From Karma Château de Samary, Carcassonne
Taste in Cabardès, ten minutes north. The seventeenth-century Château de Pennautier opens its cellars in the only French appellation that blends Atlantic and Mediterranean grapes, Merlot ripening in the same rows as Syrah.
Drink the first sparkling wine, forty minutes south. Monks at Saint-Hilaire were making Blanquette de Limoux in 1531, more than a century before Champagne. The abbey receives visitors and Limoux’s cellars pour throughout.
Into Minervois, forty-five minutes northeast. Domaine de l’Ostal, Jean-Michel Cazes’ estate, pours old Carignan grown on garrigue, the limestone scrub that smells of thyme and hot stone in September.
Eat at a Fête des Vendanges, across the Aude. Villages mark the end of picking through September and October with trestle tables, cassoulet and the year’s first wine.
From Le Preverger, once Jeanne Moreau’s home, in the hills above St-Tropez
Pick with secateurs, forty minutes north. Château des Demoiselles at La Motte puts Members into the rows in September, the vineyard reached by scooter or quad bike.
Follow the carts at La Cadière-d’Azur, an hour west. Bandol villages parade the grapes in by cart, Mourvèdre ripening on dry-stone restanques, terraces cut into slopes above the sea.
Find Bellet, ninety minutes east. One of France’s smallest appellations sits inside Nice’s city limits, fifty hectares of terraces where growers open by appointment to pour Braquet and Folle Noire.
