It looks like the orange soil of Mars familiar from Nasa photographs. However, this is the endless, blisteringly hot stone fields of the steep foothills of Mount Ventoux in the southern Rhone.

It is easy to see the attractions of this unique landscape on the edge of Provence. Indeed it would be hard to see what artist, or Dublin-born winemaker, would not fall in love with the cacophony of vivid colours on show here. Life is in green, dark green, grey, very dark green; brown and grey Dublin could not possibly prepare you for this.

About half an hour further on, you arrive at the very cliche of a sleepy French village. Mormoiron is full of tiny, steep and narrow roads, designed primarily for a horse and cart. It is also awash with the kind of gorgeous stone-built village houses that fill television shows such as A Place in the Sun. As with most villages in southern France, it claims to have a population of over 1,000 people but you rarely spot more than three people at the one time.

It is here in this other-worldly landscape that Dubliner Ciaran Rooney makes the wine of Kilkenny businessman Gay McGuinness’s Domaine des Anges.

‘‘Yes, I think our neighbours are well aware that we are quite different, that we have a different approach - an Irish approach – to what we do,” says Rooney.

‘‘Domaine des Anges is extremely proud of its Irishness. We are also quite conscious of other Irish people and companies who are operating in and outside of Ireland with the same kind of vision and vigour.

‘‘Where that occurs and how it relates back to Ireland might surprise you. For example, we know the Irish people behind a company called Highlife Ski, they are a really great bunch. They operate a terrific Alpine Ski business, bringing a lot of Irish people to France to the slopes and chalets.”

The Dublin-based Highlife team emphasises the wining and dining aspect of its ski holidays, bringing wines from Domaine des Anges and David O’Brien’s Chateau Vignelaure into the Alps. It also runs tasting events with Irish wines. Rooney is both general manager and winemaker at Domaine des Anges.

‘‘I am on site 24 hours a day. You have to be, really. I am out on the land every day - for me the mobile phone is the important number, not the office number.” Rooney explains that, above all, creating a great wine in difficult terrain is about day to day, hands-on interaction with the soils and the vines.

‘‘For me, wine began as a quest to find something that combined my passion for science with an outdoor life and, of course, work. So I went to the university at Stellenbosch and graduated with a BSc in viticulture and oenology. I worked all over theworld and very quickly, it becomes more than just a job. It becomes your passion and a huge part of your life.”

Rooney learned his craft at the sorting tables of some of the best wineries and chateaux in the world - from Chateau Lafite Rothschild in Bordeaux; Tyrells and Knappstein Wines in Australia; Kumeu River in New Zealand; Cakebread Cellars in California and at Neil Ellis Wines in South Africa where he was cellarmaster.

So when he met Gay McGuinness and was persuaded to come and run his winery in the Rhone, it was not a case of a Dubliner leaving home to play at making wines.

He was a fully fledged and respected winemaker by that time, and this has been the real key to the continuing success of Domaine des Anges.

It is not just a winery run by Irish people learning the ropes, this is Irish winemaking genius, creating some of the world’s finest wines - just as David and Catherine O’Brien are doing at Chateau Vignelaure, Lochlann Quinn is doing at classed growth Chateau de Fieuzal and Kilkenny native David Fennell is doing at Margaux classed growth, Chateau duTertre.

Wines of Domaine des Anges

Domaine des Anges, Rouge, Cotes de Ventoux 2005 €12, (88)

This wine is made from grapes that come from several different vineyards. It is a blend of syrah and grenache, which are vinified separately - the syrah would be in barrels of its own for a few months before being blended. The wine is about 75 per cent syrah, 25 per cent grenache and is smooth, very lightly tannic with just a trace of perfumed heathers. A soft and luscious wine.

Domaine des Anges, Blanc, Cotes de Ventoux 2006, €12 (89)

This white wine in the entry level outshines the red. With its traditional Marsanne and Rousanne blend fermented in oak, it is wonderfully exotic, oily and lightly spicy at the finish.

Domaine des Anges, Rose, Cotes de Ventoux 2006, €11 (88)

The rose wine was mentioned recently in the ‘3 to buy’ section. That was the 2005 and is currently tasting the slightly better wine. Unfortunately, the main stockists O’Briens is now sold out, but you may find the odd bottle here and there.

This is the new vintage, the 2006,which I’ve scored at a point off the 2005. It’s not too dramatic and still has a bit to travel in terms of maturity.

However, remember that the aim of most rose wines is freshness and vivacity - and this one is no exception, so don’t go cellaring this for a decade.

Domaine des Anges, Rouge L’Archange, Cotes de Ventoux 2004 €20, (90)

Many consider this wine to be Rooney’s masterpiece. I beg to differ, as I think that honour goes to the white. However, this is still an ambitious wine that in a more prestigious commune only 20kmaway could fetch double or triple this price. It is made in tiny quantities, comes from 40-year-old vine blocks and is expensively made.

The syrah, for example, is aged in barriques for a year, unblended, while the grenache is aged in a stainless steel tank to emphasise the freshness of the fruit. The blend, 80 per cent syrah and 20 per cent grenache, is a super luscious, polished wine bursting with weighty dynamic dark fruits, a touch of white pepper and the telltale tar notes of southern Rhone syrah. A superb wine at a startlingly reasonable price - but for how long more?

Domaine des Anges, Blanc L’Archange, Cotes de Ventoux 2006 €18, (91)

For me, the star of Domaine des Anges, it makes only 750 cases a year as it is a single vineyard wine. Barrel-fermented Rousanne, letting the wine sit on its lees, and ageing in oak provides the kinds of kid-glove treatment you expect of a flashy and expensive Burgundy.

This is the wine that must have its neighbours wondering just what is going on at Domaine des Anges. Many other wines of Ventoux are really rather plain, rustic affairs treading water in the shadow of the Cotes du Rhone.

This wine shows that Rooney and McGuinness have their eyes on a larger stage. The 2006 is brought together superbly with toasty, creamy notes at the attack giving way to layers of spice, light oily lime tinges and restrained spice with a rising freshness and even minerality at the finish. At this price, the New World is giving us some very ordinary white wines.

TO TRY

Marchesi Mazzei, Zisola, IGT 2006, €19 from Searsons Wine Merchants, Monkstown, Co Dublin, and good wine shops (87)

Sicilian wines have been vying for the attention of consumers for centuries. However, despite the huge history and the set of interesting vines, along with many strong branding opportunities and wine stories on the island, they have yet to find the ultimate breakthrough into the Irish wine consumer’s consciousness.

Perhaps because of this, or more likely because of their island nature and Cosa Nostra-like introversion, many Sicilian wines have turned their back on internationalism and the conventional. They have chosen to stick to their own thing, as here, a raucous, hotblooded rustic take on the local nero d’avola grape in a fabulous squat bottle, a two-fingered declaration of independence from global standardisation.

TO BUY

Castillo San Lorenzo, Reserva DOC Rioja 2003, €16 (sale from March26–April 22 at €8) from Tesco (88)

This is a bargain not to be missed. I am noting it early, so that readers can be ready to snap up a few. It is a really well put together, luscious and enjoyable Rioja of the New Wave, with plenty of soft, ripe black fruits such as blackcurrant and plum, touches of dark chocolate and hints of kir, all draped over a toasty frame with vanilla and light spicy tones.

The wine is aged for 24 months in oak barrels drawn from French and US coopers, but the weight of the fruit has been more than a match for this oak treatment. So while it is toasty, it is not unbalanced – nor are there overpowering coconut flavours, so typical of many modern Rioja. At €16, this is an enjoyable everyday wine; at €8 it is an absolute steal.

TO PUT BY Chateau de Tracy, AC Pouilly-Fume 2006, €27 from the Vintry, 102 Rathgar Road, Dublin 6, and good wine shops (91)

The Comte Henri d’Assay is the absolute picture of an affable French aristocrat. He is rarely seen without his trademark bow tie, a well pressed shirt and a warm jumper. This is a sauvignon blanc from a fairytale castle in the Loire Valley.

Although the summers can be full of sunshine, it only rarely experiences the boiling heat of the Rhone or the Languedoc. The Loire river moderates the heat and dominates the landscape.

In Pouilly-Fume, the river has cut through the chalky soils to create swirling south-facing hills ideal for growing zesty, mouth-watering sauvignon. This is one of the smoky, lime-tinged best, with ages of development to come.

wine@sbpost.ie