Domaine du Mortier La P'tit Vadrouille 2016, natural red wine bottle at Primal Wine
Domaine du Mortier
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Domaine du Mortier La P'tit Vadrouille 2016

$22.00
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Tasting notes

This is a once-off, frost-salvage cuvée: Merlot-dominant, semi-carbonic, and made from Dordogne fruit vinified in the Loire — a combination that produces something genuinely unusual. The 12-day no-pump-over maceration keeps the tannins soft and the cherry-plum fruit vivid, with a violet lift and white pepper on the finish that read unmistakably Cabernet Franc.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
CherryPlumVioletWhite Pepper
Dry/Sweet:Dry
Wine Type:Red Wine
Wine Style:Light Body
Grapes:Merlot, Cabernet Franc
Farming:Organic and Biodynamic
Vintage:2016
Alcohol:13%
Country:France
Region:Loire Valley
Appellation:Vin de France
Bottle Size:750ml
Sugar Level:Zero Added Sugar
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Important information

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Important Compliance Requirements

FedEx and other carriers we might occasionally use can only deliver wine to customers who are 21 years or older. Someone must be at the address to receive the package; carriers don't just drop a package and leave. They must ensure the person receiving the wine is 21 or older. Shipping to PO Boxes is not allowed.

Ship to a FedEx Store

If nobody can be at your address to sign for the package, you can have your order sent to a FedEx store instead. Enter your preferred FedEx store as the shipping address at checkout and we'll ship your order there. Once it arrives, you have 5 business days to pick it up, and you'll need to show your ID.

Re-shipping a Package

If a package is returned to us after three failed delivery attempts, we can only re-ship the wine upon payment of a re-shipping fee, to be determined based on the shipping address and number of bottles. Shipping wine is extremely expensive. We are sorry about this, but we have no other choice. Please make sure there's always someone at the address you enter as your shipping address.

If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.

Re-routing a Package

If you'd like to reroute a package after it's been shipped, we can do so for a $20 re-routing fee. We cannot re-route a package across state borders. For any change of address, please contact us as soon as possible, ideally within 1-2 days from placing the order or we cannot guarantee we'll be able to reroute or change your order's shipping address.

Canceling an Order

If you'd like to cancel an order after it's been shipped, we can do so upon payment of a small cancellation fee – the amount depends on the size of the order. Carriers charge us a lot of money to recall a package en-route.

Heat/Frost damage

We are not responsible for heat- or frost-related issues. We offer ice packs upon request, at a cost, but even so, we can't be held liable if it's 104 where you are and corks pop. Please let us know if you think that there could be heat-related issues. If we don't hear anything from you regarding weather issues before an order is shipped, or if you don't request a hold due to the weather, we are not responsible for heat/frost damage.

Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

3. Please track your package using the tracking service.

4. The carrier will attempt delivery a maximum of 3 times. After 3 delivery attempts, your package will be sent back to our warehouse.**

*Please ensure your email address is correct; otherwise, you will not receive the order and shipping confirmation emails.

**If delivery is attempted 3 times without success, or if you fail to retrieve your package from the carrier depot by the stated deadline, the shipping fee will not be refunded to the customer.

Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Domaine du Mortier

Cyril and Fabien Boisard founded Domaine du Mortier in 1996, starting on 3 hectares their father Joël helped them acquire. The domain is named after the hamlet of La Gardière, where the winery sits on the upper slopes directly above the village of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, near the treeline at the top of the Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil terraces. Neither brother came from a winemaking family — their parents bought a house with a small vineyard in 1989, and the then-teenagers took up viticulture from there. The estate has grown to 16 hectares: 8ha in Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC, 2ha in Bourgueil AOC, and 6ha of experimental agroforestry vineyards in the neighboring village of Brain-sur-Allonnes, where local grape varieties are interplanted with trees and shrubs to promote biodiversity.

The domaine has been certified organic by Ecocert since 1999 and has incorporated biodynamic practices since 2007, working with neighboring estates to prepare communal biodynamic preparations. The estate holds the Nature et Progrès label (since 2011) and the Vin Méthode Nature certification. Farming excludes all synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. The brothers use cover crops, natural composts, and surface soil work. Sulfur and copper are the only treatments applied in the vineyard when necessary.

Winemaking across the domaine is low-intervention: grapes are hand-harvested in small crates, sorted, and fermented spontaneously with native yeast in the naturally cool cellar. No commercial yeast, enzymes, or tannins are added. A small amount of mineral sulfur is added only at bottling, if at all. Different cuvées use different vessels and maceration lengths depending on soil type — sandy-soil wines see shorter macerations in cement vats, while gravel and tuffeau plots get longer macerations in cement or wood. La P'tit Vadrouille 2016, being a special frost-year cuvée, used 12-day semi-carbonic maceration without pump-overs, followed by aging in concrete tank before bottling with approximately 10ppm sulfur.

Wine region

Loire Valley, France

Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil is an AOC established in 1937, covering approximately 1,080 hectares within a single commune on the right bank of the Loire, halfway between Tours and Angers. The appellation sits on terraces shaped by the Loire and Vienne rivers, where the two rivers' confluence creates a moderating lake effect on the local climate. The region has a temperate, oceanic-influenced climate with mild summers and relatively frost-free winters — though spring frost remains a recurring threat at this northern latitude. Woodland ridges along the hillside tops shield the vineyards from north winds.

The soils divide into two main types: alluvial sand and gravel on the lower terraces near the river, which produce lighter, fruit-forward wines with refined tannins; and Turonian chalk limestone (tuffeau) on the upper slopes, which gives more structured, longer-aging wines. About a third of the appellation's vineyards are planted on tuffeau. Cabernet Franc — called Breton locally — is the dominant grape, with up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon permitted but rarely used by quality-focused producers. Typical aromatics from the appellation include raspberry, violet, dark berry, and white pepper, with fresh acidity and soft to moderate tannins depending on terroir. Note that La P'tit Vadrouille 2016 is classified as Vin de France rather than Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC, as the grapes were sourced from an organic plot in the Dordogne region.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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