Domaine de Charbonnière is a family business, and is in the process of being transferred from father, Michel Maret, to daughters Véronique and Caroline.
Michel took over as the third generation of his family to run the estate in 1973 and the daughters began to work with him in 2004. The wines are made only from the family's 17.5ha of vines scattered among some very good slopes to the north and east of Châteauneuf including a valuable holding on the famous La Crau, as well as 4 hectares in Vacqueyras and some Côtes-du-Rhône.
Grapes are all picked by hand and always fully ripe. Vinification is done by grape variety as grenache is always among the last to be picked, especially in the drought vintages like 2003 and 2009. After fermentation, grenache is aged in large foudres and syrah in smaller barrels, then blended together and aged further in foudre for about eight more months. Michel makes several cuvées and all are bottled unfined and unfiltered.