Domaine du Petit Oratoire

Gard, Rhone Valley

Lori Haon is a young, talented winemaker who farms 22 hectares in Valliguieres, not far from Avignon.

His beautiful parcels are spread across a variety of terroir, most on sandy soils with a limestone bedrock, others on the rare ‘lauzes blanches’ similar to nearby Tavel, and 4 hectares leased in Souvignargues on the unique Grés soils of that area.

In 2015 Lori was looking for a small vineyard to get into winemaking. Hoping for a manageable 3 hectares, his dad by chance found a 15 hectare estate for sale on listings site Le Bon Coin and decided to bid on it immediately for Lori, saying he could pay him back later.

Lori wasn’t expecting to take over 15ha right away but was happy to rise to the challenge. With the help of both his uncle in Drôme and our mutual friend Thierry Forestier, Lori quickly got to grips with a larger estate. Nature threw a few hurdles in his direction to test his resolve though. The first three vintages were marred by a wild-boar attack, an 80% loss to frost, and a 75% loss to mildew consecutively.

Not one to be discouraged, Lori often jokes that he’s a survivor, and finally had his resolve rewarded in 2020 with his first bumper-crop: “2020 was my first very, very good vintage since I started. We managed to pick nearly twice as much as the other years, and the quality was easily twice as good as we’d had before!”

Lori fell in love with natural wine whilst studying oenology in Alsace and quickly got to work converting his estate to organics and biodynamics, achieving Demeter certification in 2022.

As climate change plays havoc with many of his neighbours in other departments of the Gard, Lori; mostly isolated in Valliguieres, considers himself very lucky:

“We have a little micro-climate here. Valliguières is special. We have a little river, and all around the town we’re surrounded by mountains. The mountains and the river bring so much freshness. The climate is changing quickly, but here much less so than other regions nearby.”

Across his parcels, Lori tends to a wide array of varieties, among them: Grenache, Carignan, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Pinot Noir, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Riesling, Roussanne and Viognier. He likes to play fast and loose with his distinctions between whites and reds, with traditional varietals for one style often finding themselves in the tank for another.

Even in the short couple of years we have known Lori, his style continues to sharpen and develop: macerations for reds are very gentle, aiming for precise, delicate extractions. His whites switch between bright wines for refreshment, and more complex terroir-focused expressions. Sulphur is rarely used in any of his multiple cuvees, and if ever- in tiny doses.