In 2006 Jean-Marc Espinasse purchased a 400 year old provençal farm. The 8 ha belonging to the farm are planted with old vines - Carignan, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. As the grapes had previously been sold to a co-operative the property had no name. Jean-Marc chose the name Domaine Rouge-Bleu.

Jean-Marc Espinasse was schooled as an accountant. In 1989, when his uncle Jean-Claude Vidal became the owner of Domaine du Banneret in Chateauneuf du Pape, Jean-Marc became more and more involved in helping his uncle during harvest and bottling. Jean-Marc’s wife Kristen is American and at the time lived in California. He was also helping (with success) his uncle to market his wines in US and this was the starting point for the decision to switch the professional career to embrace the wine world.

With the assistance of his uncle and the oenologist at Domaine du Banneret the Espinasse’s set out to find a suitable property.

They purchased three parcels: in the Vin du Pays area, in AOC Cotes du Rhone and in AOC Cotes du Rhone Village. As Espinasse wants to be able to blend the wines from the different parcels he just calls the red wines Vin du Pays de Méditerranée or Cotes du Rhone.

Jean-Marc Espinasse uses organic methods in the vineyard. "What I learned is that winemaking happens naturally when you harvest a mature grape in a good sanitary state. I also learned that you can’t make a great wine if you don’t have a great terroir and that what happens in the cellar is the continuation of what you harvest. In other words, you may have the very best equipment, but you will never make a great wine if you don’t harvest a great grape."