In 1998, Michel & Louis Bronzo, the famous pair behind La Bastide Blanche in Bandol, purchased another famous old property in the area, Château des Baumelles. The immediately went about re-vamping the vineyard, using organic farming techniques, and banning tractors. They lowered the yeilds to a nearly unthinkable 30 hl/ha (this is lower than many Grand Crus in Burgundy). The results have been oustanding, even if they have gone somewhat unnoticed in the press. They release the wines late to allow extra barrel and bottle time, and to mellow out what can be hard edges from Provençal Mourvedre and Grenache.
The soil here is argilo-limestone underneath argilo-marl. The vines average 28 years old and are bush-trained in the traditional Provençal fashion. The wine is aged in 400-liter oak foudre (large barrels). The wine is made up of 86% Mourvedre and 14% Grenache. In 2004, 835 cases were made .
Bandol has always been a bit of a mystery to the rest of the world. The wines are structured above all else (many of the lesser wines seem to be all tannin and acid and no fruit). By all means, this is a powerful wine, but it has a lot of other things going on as well: pepper, smoke, blackberry liqueur, and more than a little bit of dusty dried herbs that are all wrapped around steely tannins and an intense acidity.
The structure here demands hearty, fatty meats, but the intensity also demands flavor. So try this with Flank Steak, Herb Roasted Lamb, Olives, or Rabbit (actually, there’s this provencal dish that consists of rabbit stewed with lardon (bacon), olives, garlic and red wine that would be perfect). Drink now – 2014 (some say to wait longer, but I have always felt that while bandol holds for a long time, it doesn’t often improve beyond 10 years of it’s birth).
This is a very cool project I came across a few months ago at a tasting. Rather than pontificate, I’m going to reprint the bio of the winemaker and the vineyard manager and a profile of the vineyard from the website. The wines are as delicious as Pinot Noir can be, and though the critics disagreed with me slightly, this was my favorite of the three they made in 2006. I have also reprinted the fiche technique below, for details on winemaking etc.
Born in Otago, Grant was educated at Lincoln College in Canterbury. In 1980, he helped establish Pine Ridge Winery in Napa, California and worked there as assistant winemaker until 1986. In 1987, he helped build another Napa winery, Domaine Napa, and worked there as head winemaker until 1993. 
The vineyard is located in Westside Paso Robles out Hwy 46 about 12 miles from the ocean and Hearst Castle, as a crow flies. The proximity to the ocean helps regulate the high temperatures often associated with Paso Robles and is further aided by tremendous diurnal temperature variations. Peak temperatures can reach the low 100-degree range yet dive into the low 50s at night, allowing for the vines to recover. These large temperature fluctuations between high and low create a very desirable “sugar to acid ratio”. This, coupled with the high-lime, calcareous soils which do not allow for a lot of potassium absorption, keep pHs lower, even at elevated sugar levels, resulting in ripe fruity wines with a balanced underlying acidity. This vineyard’s attributes aid in my syrah winemaking technique of including 50% to 100% whole cluster, dependant on vintage.