Maybe it’s because I’m expecting my second kid and have a temporarily renewed affinity for all things small and cute, but I found the idea of Le Grand Verre’s figuratively pint-sized (they’re actually 6.3oz) packaging intriguing enough to accept their live virtual tasting/samples invitation.
I mean, the sort of test-tube-esque bottles are kind of cute, in a mad-scientist-meets-excited-wine-lover kind of way. The fact that they focus on providing wines from French producers that are led by women, and that focus on sustainable/organic offerings was really just cool icing on the cake for me.
Nicolas Deffrennes, the founder of Le Grand Verre, grew up in what he described as “a really small town in Cotes du Rhône.” When attending Harvard, Deffrennes “had my ‘eureka’ moment” after joining the university’s famous wine club. “My dream job was to be helping French exports,” he noted.
As for the selections at Le Grand Verre, Deffrennes explained that their focus on organic/sustainable and female-led estates developed more naturally from their primary goal, which was to showcase “more off the beaten path, more authentic wines” Receiving a grant from Burgundy, they designed their proprietary packaging (shatter-proof, double sided, recyclable PET mini-bottles) and toured vineyards to find wines for the program.
As we’ll see in a minute, the wines are good and, for the most part, outperform their extremely modest price points (I’ve tried to extrapolate full bottle prices below based on what their flights cost), but the packaging kind of shares equal billing with them at the moment. Deffrennes vision was to provide “the freedom of sampling, without the need to open an entire bottle” (is this actually an issue that most of us even have after sheltering-in-place?). The minis are deliberately designed so that the color of the wines can be seen easily, with the elongated, slim shape apparently helping to make pouring easier. They are double-coated to help preserve freshness. When pressed to detail how long a wine might stay fresh/drinkable in LGV’s proprietary, Deffrennes demurred that the design was meant to preserve the wine “for a long time.” At which point, I had to channel my inner K2-S0:
Anyway, let’s see how the contents of that innovate packaging fared, shall we?
2020 Domaine de Caylus Chardonnay (Pays d’Herault, $6.25)
Domaine de Caylus resides on 25 hectares of organically farmed vineyards in the South of France. Inès Andrieu calls the shots there, her grandfather having bought the Domaine in 1963. “My father [still] lives downstairs,” she noted. The family have been winegrowers since 1865. “It’s difficult, as a woman, but it’s a good life, it’s a beautiful life,” she told us. “Now, I am the manager. My first goal is to preserve our lifestyles. We live…
