Domaine des Trois Cyprès

Domaine des Trois Cyprès sits on a limestone shelf twelve kilometres inland from Fréjus, where the last of the coastal breeze meets the first of the hills. The bastide dates from 1780 and was a working farm until 1996, when the family that still runs it replaced the mixed orchard with vines. Forty-two hectares are now under Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Rolle, certified organic since 2011, and the cellar below the house is cut into the same rock the terraces stand on. Six rooms occupy the old stone house; the Farmhouse, three hundred metres up the track, sleeps ten as a single unit. Breakfast is served on the terrace until eleven. The kitchen runs a set menu five evenings a week, built around what the potager and the two neighbouring farms have that day, and every dish is paired with a wine from the estate. Tastings happen in the cellar with whoever made the wine that year. Harvest runs from late August to mid-September and guests are welcome to join a morning of picking; the rosé is pressed within hours of the fruit coming in, which is the reason to be here then.