Domaine des Carabiniers

Fruit read from row to vat

Fabien Leperchois reads the vine before he reads the vat, working as winemaker at Domaine des Carabiniers in Roquemaure, France, where field and cellar stay tied. As Vineyard Manager and Maître de Chai, Fabien Leperchois holds responsibility for the estate’s full arc: the rows outside Roquemaure, the fermenting must beneath roof and beam, and the decisions that keep one in conversation with the other. The house began with the Leperchois family’s first 3 hectares near Roquemaure in the 1930s, after the family came from Santa Croce sull'Arno in Tuscany in the 1920s. Christian Leperchois, the third generation, took over in 1974, expanded the vineyard to 9 hectares, began bottling under the family name, and released the first Côtes-du-Rhône that year. Tavel and Lirac followed in 1980. Today the estate is managed by Magali and Fabien Leperchois, the fourth generation on the land. Fabien joined as Maître de Chai in 2006 and led the conversion to biodynamic viticulture; Magali joined in 2013, carrying administration and sales. In 2015, they founded Biodynamic Wine SARL, keeping management and distribution close to the same family bench.

Biodynamics in the southern Rhône

The estate now works 50 hectares across Côtes-du-Rhône, Tavel, Lirac, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and IGP Pays d’Oc, with Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, Clairette, and Grenache Blanc among the planted varieties. Organic practice has shaped the vineyard since 1990, with ECOCERT certification in 1997; biodynamic work began in 2006, with DEMETER certification in 2009. The method is practical rather than decorative. The team uses plant infusions, silica quartz, and horn manure to support vine defenses, timing treatments by weather, lunar cycles, and what the plant shows in the row. In the cellar, grapes are harvested at night, fermentation runs on natural yeasts, and the estate works without added sulphites during fermentation. Temperature is held at 28°C to keep fruit aromas intact, and total SO₂ is kept at 30–40 mg/L, with adjustments only at bottling for selected wines. The Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge carries a named blend: 50% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre, and 10% Cinsault. Fabien’s line on Tavel is just as exact: “For me, Tavel is not a rosé, it is Tavel.”

Rolled pebbles outside the tasting room

The cellar sits in the countryside just outside Roquemaure, near Avignon, among southern Rhône vines and the rolled pebbles that mark this part of the valley. The setting is quiet and working, more rural estate than polished salon. In the tasting room, the place keeps its attention on appellation and farming: Tavel as its own category, Lirac in red and white, Côtes-du-Rhône for the family’s long-running release, Châteauneuf-du-Pape for the broader reach of the cellar. The name Carabiniers reaches back to the 14th century, when Italian mounted guards served the Papacy at Avignon and kept horses in the locality. The family built its cellar on the site of a former stable, and the horse remains the domain’s symbol. That history sits lightly here. The present work is still in the rows, the cellar, and the next bottling of Tavel.