In 2004 Les Beaux Terroirs were an uninhabited wreck. Since then they have been renovated from top to bottom by Sam Owens. Over the past few years Sam found himself bumping into a new couple in town, Adam Breen and Annabel Andrewes, at almost every turn. They run www.evasiontravel.co.uk, running winter holidays in the Alps and summer holidays in Provence. Evasion Travel now runs Les Beaux Terroirs and ensures that all guests have a tip top time and a tipple or two...

 

When deciding what to call the place, it obviously had to be connected with wine. 'Terroir' is a word for which there is no exact English translation, but roughly it implies 'a sense of place'. The thinking is that a wine is intrinsically imprinted with the character of the place it comes from - i.e. from the soils, the rocks, its orientation, its climate. 'Les Beaux Terroirs' hence means 'the beautiful terroirs'.

The concept of terroir is anathema to those who believe that wine should become a standardised product just like Coca-Cola or the Big Mac. But terroir lies at heart of what makes wine such an endlessly fascinating and pleasurable interest and we should all champion it...