Why Our Award-Winning Bijou Wines are So Special

Award-Winning Bijou Wine from Carefully Selected Hand Picked Grapes

Our award-winning Le Bijou de Sophie Valrose wines are created from grapes that are sourced from selected vineyards on the sloping hillsides of Cabrières. This is a tiny and idyllic region in the Languedoc-Roussillon just 30km north from the Mediterranean. The charming little village is also dominated by the Pic de Vissou, an extinct volcano that provides our vineyards with very old soils, high levels of schist and a host of marine fossils. These unique volcanic soils give Bijou Wines their characteristic aromatics, minerality and freshness.

Le Bijou de Sophie Valrose Wines are quite distinctive from wines nearby, due to the unique climate and soil types of the area. The vineyards lie at altitudes between 200 and 450 meters, meaning the micro-climate is significantly cooler than surrounding areas. We benefit from more than 220 days of sun per year which ensures plenty of sunlight to ripen our grapes and produce ripe fruit flavours. The cool nights and warm days help the grapes to ripen slowly and develop more concentrated and complex flavours. The area lies on volcanic soils which helps create high-quality grapes with great structure and freshness.

Each grape variety is harvested and vinified separately and then finally blended together to create a perfectly balanced wine. Our winemakers use traditional techniques of pumping over and punching down twice a day to extract the optimum amount of flavour from the grapes. We also use a second fermentation called malolactic – which transforms malic into lactic acid and results in the wine’s finesse and rounded character. Local yeasts are used to ferment the wine for 15 to 18 days in temperature controlled vats. Fermentation takes place at temperatures of 14-16 ° to preserve the delicate fruit flavours.

If you would like to find out more about our wines please contact us.