Château Mourgues du Grès

France | Costiere de Nimes

In Provence, “Nuns” is “Mourgues” and “Grès” is “Pebbles”, referring to rounded rocks of the Costières de Nîmes that lend character to their wines.

In the Southern Rhône Valley, a winding road meaning along the foothills of the Costières de Nîmes lead us alongside orchards and through vineyards, to Château Mourgues du Grès where winemaker François Collard and his wife Anne shared their passion and family story with the Bourget team when we last visited in 2017.

: An idyllic lunch at the Château

: Vanessa, Sales Manager at Bourget in the vineyard

: Stunning flowers in bloom at Château Mourgues du Grès

: Fleur d’Eglantine with its namesake

The name Château Mourgues du Grès pays homage to its past occupants, having been home to the Convent of the Ursulines prior to the French Revolution; mourgues being French for nuns, and grès pebbles — referring to the rounded rocks strewn throughout the Alps by glaciers long ago, which lend their wines a signature minerality and freshness.

Producer Website

One of the most impressive estates in the Costières de Nîmes; a treasure-trove of value-priced wines.

Robert Parker

Wine Advocate

In the courtyard of the Château, a sundial reads “Sine Sole Nihil”, meaning nothing without sun, an admonition that the sun is is paramount to all that happens here today, providing ripeness in spite of the relentless and cooling winds of the Mistral. Today, the bottles of Château Mourgues du Grès with the sundial featured on their front labels.

The Vineyards

Château Mourgues du Grès is made up of a patchwork of vineyards, lending diversity of soils and sun exposure to enhance and complement one another in the finished wines. Explore the vineyards here.

The People

François, an Agricultural Engineer and Oenologist and Anne, an urbanist-geographer, are committed to the good stewardship of these lands through natural vineyard practices that maintain healthy soil, and prevent erosion, and also by being mindful of their energy footprint through practices such as night harvesting.

In addition to preserving the land, the Collards are also strongly committed to preserving the heritage of the Château though their use of local materials for the construction of a new wine cellar made from the stone of Pont du Gard, a Roman Aqueduct which once carried water through the Nîmes.

It was precision in the vineyard coupled with a taste for innovation that led to the bottling of the first wine in 1993. I strive to reveal the purity of the fruit, the freshness, the aromas, the balance between the richness and the minerality of the wine.

François Collard

Winemaker, Château Mourgues du Grès