STRUCTURE

Wine

The classic grapes of La Livinière are of the reds Syrah, Grenache, Carignan and, less so, Cinsault. And, of whites, Grenache Gris, Marsanne and Rousanne. Benji Darnault, our winemaker at Boulevard Napoleon, says he thinks red Grenache is most suited to the area, producing wines that perfectly represent the South of France, “warm, full but also subtle, lifty, juicy, a food wine to quench thirst,” he says.

Trevor and Benji are in fierce agreement that a structure of a wine is all-important:

“A great wine to me has to be long, big and light,” states Benji

“Yes, it needs shoulders but it needs elegance,” agrees Trevor.

“Who does it look like?”

Trevor thinks for a moment. “An East German swimmer circa 1974 of indiscriminate sex but very beautiful!”

Words by Mina Holland, photographs by Elena Heatherwick

Trevor's views and adventures

Keykegs and Hugh the Campaigner, jobs for the (Brexit) boys and some light relief in Paris and elsewhere.

I’m waiting for someone to tell me that keykegs are not generally single use plastic items here in the UK, anybody? Meanwhile I have taken the liberty of attaching an opinion piece that Root & Bone magazine asked me to write.

Change - the bad and the good

Let’s get straight to it: keykegs are becoming popular and people ask why we do not have them. Don’t we hold eco values? But those values are the reason we don’t have them: recycling. Key kegs, for those who do not know, are plastic barrels for wine or beer on draft. Salesmen of product packaged in this way are somewhat, well, diffident on the subject as they push their product. So here are the facts: they are only recyclable through one company currently in the UK, who take payment to take them away, and who undertake this as a "marketing exercise”...

Travel Looms

I’ve learnt to curtail my luddish tendencies - many will know that I’ve sometimes refused to regard the fact that St. JOHN really is a 'brand'. But now we have our wines carrying our own label, so fair enough! And happy we are to produce these. However when I visited Lisbon a while back and was shown around the new Time Out Market I was not impressed.

THE WINERY

This is St. JOHN’s winery, Boulevard Napoleon, in the Languedoc village of La Livinière.

In a twist of perfect porcine serendipity, the building is an old pig sty, making Trevor’s local nickname (The Pig) particularly apt – as you can imagine, he spends rather a lot of time here.

Words by Mina Holland, photographs by Elena Heatherwick

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