On the highest plateau of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the ground is paved with rounded stones the size of fists, baked by the sun and swept by the mistral. This is La Crau, and for six generations the Brunier family has made it the heart of one of the appellation's most enduring estates, Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe.
Backstory
Henri Brunier founded the domaine in 1891 at Bédarrides. His son Hippolyte planted the first vines on La Crau, and a later Jules named the estate after the optical telegraph tower built nearby by Claude Chappe in 1821. After the Second World War another Henri revived and expanded the property. Brothers Frédéric and Daniel have led since the early 1980s, and the sixth generation, Nicolas, Édouard, and Manon, joined between 2015 and 2018.
The Region
Châteauneuf-du-Pape lies in the southern Rhône near Avignon, on the left bank of the river. La Crau is its loftiest plateau, fully exposed to relentless sun and the drying mistral wind. The combination concentrates the fruit, limits disease pressure, and helps keep the vineyard healthy in a warm climate.
Vineyards & Farming
The estate farms around 100 hectares within the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, the core of it on La Crau. The signature soil is galets roulés, a deep bed of rounded quartzite stones over sandy red clay, which stores daytime heat and releases it slowly through the night. The family also holds parcels in Ventoux and IGP Vaucluse, owns Domaine Les Pallières in Gigondas, acquired in 1998, and co-founded Massaya in Lebanon the same year.
Winemaking
The grand vin is built on Grenache at about 65 percent, with Syrah and Mourvèdre near 15 percent each and the balance Cinsault and Clairette. Fruit is partially destemmed and fermented in stainless steel and wood. After blending in early summer, the red ages around 20 months in large foudres, then is bottled unfined and unfiltered. The white draws on Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, and Bourboulenc, and rewards several years in bottle.
The Wines
The flagship is the Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau, a wine known for both immediate generosity and the structure to age for decades. Télégramme, the second wine, leans more heavily on younger-vine Grenache and ages briefly in vats and foudres for earlier drinking. There is also a white Châteauneuf, prized for its nutty, succulent depth after time in bottle. Beyond Châteauneuf, the family bottles wines from Gigondas through Les Pallières and value-driven reds and whites from Ventoux and Vaucluse. All of them carry the same fingerprint of patient, traditional winemaking, and the grand vin in particular has long served as a benchmark by which other Châteauneuf is measured.
We currently carry four wines from the family: the Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape from the La Crau plateau, its younger-vine second wine Telegramme Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the Megaphone Ventoux, and the everyday Le Pigeoulet Vaucluse red.
