The Brunel Family has been making wines in the Southern Rhône Valley since 1670, but their journey in Châteauneuf du Pape began in the middle of the 20th century. Since then, four generations have lived and worked in Château de la Gardine, steadily increasing the size of the estate. In 1963, the family acquired 47 additional hectares in Rasteau and Côtes-du-Rhône Villages. Then, in 1998, they acquired the 45-hectare Château Saint-Roch in Lirac. They have since returned to their négociant heritage with the Brunel De La Gardine collection, selecting the best grapes from a range of Southern and Northern Rhône appellations. The family blends and matures the wines, respecting the tradition and the typicity of each terroir. The Brunels strive to ensure that each of their wines are a testimony to their designation as well as an embodiment of their family values: quality, authenticity and a deep respect for the environment.
The Château de la Gardine bottle had become iconic. Since 1964, all wines have been bottled in a flask-shaped bottle. This design is inspired by a very old mouth-blown flask, one of the first to have been used in Châteauneuf- du-Pape to bottle wines in history, which the family found while digging their cellar in the mid-fifties. The etching found on that bottle still marks many of La Gardine’s bottles today.