Once the bottle is open, it goes really fast!

Wonderfully characteristic red from the Rhone. Herbs and black fruit come out of the glass, without that 'sweetness', with body!

The Le Plan Vermeersch GP-Merlot Rouge is one of the entry-level wines from former racing driver Vermeersch. His top wines, the GT series, are excellent and belong to the top of the wine world. Will this Cepage de France also meet these expectations? So what!! The GP Rouge Merlot VDF from LePlan-Vermeersch in the Rhône Valley offers a bright purple color in the glass. This single-varietal French wine shows wonderfully expressive notes of morello cherries, plums, blueberries and black cherries in the glass. These are accompanied by hints of juniper, garrigue and green peppers. The Le Plan Vermeersch GP-Merlot Rouge VDF impresses with its elegantly dry taste. It was bottled with only 1.6 grams of residual sugar.

Enjoy the Le Plan Vermeersch GP-Merlot Rouge

As one might expect from a wine in the higher price range, this French wine enchants with its fine balance despite its dryness. Aroma does not necessarily require much sugar. Balanced and versatile, this velvety red wine presents itself on the palate. In the finish, this ageable red wine from the Rhône Valley ultimately inspires with considerable length. Once again, we detect hints of mulberry and blackcurrant.

Enjoy this red wine from France, best served slightly chilled at 15–18°C, as an accompaniment to boiled veal fillet with beans and tomatoes, duck breast with sugar snap peas, or goose breast with ginger, red cabbage, and marjoram.

GT…. GP…. That looks like car racing?

Indeed! But as a retired rally racer, Dirk Vermeersch began to get bored in the countryside buzzing with grasshoppers, crickets, and bees, and the scent of blooming lavender. He started dreaming in his hammock: making his very own wine from the 1.7 hectares of very old Carignan vines planted in 1961 around his farmhouse. As a fully self-taught winemaker, he created the LePlan-Vermeersch Winery from scratch. And with an entirely new style of wines, labels, and marketing based on motor racing... what else... 

His first LePlan GT-S 2003 was awarded 2 stars in the Hachette Guide des Vins, and Robert Parker, the famous American Wine Advocate, gave his LePlan GT-1 Chateauneuf-du-Pape 95/100 points. The rest is history… Meanwhile, his daughter Ann went to the local oenology school in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region to learn her trade. Here she met her future husband, Sebastian Barbara, a former rugby player, motorcyclist, and rock artist.

In 2005, they both became part of the LePlan Vermeersch Winery. In 2010, the Vermeersch family decided to sell the old Mas and B&B and acquire a brand-new, ultra-modern 2,400 m² winery in Suze la Rousse, situated in the heart of the GT “Grand Terroir” vineyards in Suze la Rousse (village of the University of Wine). To meet international demand, they have entered into various partnership agreements with local winegrowers. Now there is the winery of the Southern Rhône: grape varieties, soil, terroir, oak barrels, stainless steel fermentation tanks, blending, bottling, and wine tasting. But always, always there is… the same passion, balance, calculated risks, attention to detail, quick decisions, methodical approach, patience, precision, and… team spirit.

We would like to call Le Plan Vermeersch GP Merlot Rouge our house wine; there is always a bottle ready to be opened. Perfect for any occasion: appetizer, dinner, lunch… you name it. For every day!