At one point in its history a 250 hectare estate, Grand Mayne now has just 19ha under vine, but they are beautifully sited on the clay limestone slopes for the most part, with some Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon on the sandy soil at the foot of the hill. Viticulture, though not organic, is concentrated on making the vines work hard for their nutrition and to put their roots deep to pick up necessary minerals and water. A precautionary green harvest is carried out when appropriate and harvest and sorting are by hand. In the cellar Grand Mayne is ahead of the game with a mixture of stainless steel and wooden fermentation tanks. One way of raising the quality of tannins in red wine is to complete the malolactic fermentation in barrel and this happesn here. The resulting wine is structured and fresh, with fine fruit quality and ripe, rich character in 2009. (CW 07/06/10)