French nuns smash online ‘Divine’ wine-sale target with time to spare

Nuns in southeast France have smashed their target of selling 9,000 bottles of rosé wine online from their estate in a matter of days - with buyers heading to the website in their droves.

In fact, according to the Divine Box website where the wine has been on sale, more than 16,500 bottles of the Exsulta rosé made by the nuns at the Abbaye de Jouques were pre-ordered by lunchtime on Monday, April 26, long before the midnight deadline.

As reported, the plan had been to sell the wine - an addition to the nuns' repertoire this year - alongside two well-established reds they produce and sell at wine fairs near the Abbaye, in Bouches-du-Rhône.

But with those events cancelled because of Covid-19, the nuns followed the lead of other vignerons whose normal markets collapsed in the Covid-19 crisis and decided to sell their wines online to individuals and wine merchants.

Wine is vital to the abbey's 47 resident sisters, as sales provide a significant portion of its income. It also produces and sells olive oil and aromatic plants for perfumiers. As Sister Armel said, selling the wine "allows the good sisters to continue to live and the Abbey to prolong its existence".