Monarde is the French name for bee balm, the scruffy purple wildflower that grows wild across the southern Rhone, and this is the wine the estate named after itself. The Vache family bought La Monardiere in 1987, converted to organic farming in 2000 and got certified in 2010, which puts them years ahead of most of Vaqueyras. This is 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah off forty-year-old vines, hand-harvested, fermented with native yeasts in concrete, aged in vat and old barrel, then bottled without fining or filtration and with very little sulfur. It is the estate's most approachable cuvee and also the clearest window into how they work. Vaqueyras with the warmth turned up and the weight turned down.