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Tag: grenache gris

Wine of the Week

Majas’ Cortado

Domaine de Majas is run by Alain and Agnes Carrère. The 30 hectare domain is located in the Roussillon by the village Caudiès de Fenouillèdes. Tom Lubbe from nearby Domaine Matassa helped to change into organic cultivation. The vineyards are at 350-400 meters’ height in slopes with good exposure and drenage. We see around 120 year old vines of carignan, grenache noir and macabeu, and younger (30-35 years) of syrah, cabernet franc, merlot, rolle and chardonnay. The climate is affected by the nearness of the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean sea.

The wines are fermented with natural yeasts in old cement tanks, some steel and a small percentage old, used wood.

Here we experience harsh winters and warm, sunny summers. The tough northwestern wind from the Pyrenees and the wet Mediterranean breeze often follow each other.

Even if the domain lies within the AOC Côtes du Roussillon they often choose to classify their wines as Vin de Pays de Côtes Catalanes, to honour what they consider te be a unique area.

The soil is mainly chalky clay and schist.

The grapes for this wine are grenache 50%, grenache gris 25%, and grenache blanc 25%. They were hand-harvested, naturally fermented in cement and aged there for 6 months.

Cortado 2017 (Dom. de Majas)

Light ruby. Aroma of white flowers, plums, peach and raspberry. In the mouth it’s intense, fruity with round tannins.

Price: Low

Food: Light meat, white fish, salads

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Wine of the Week

Jean-Philippe Padié’s white flower

Calce is a village on the edge of the Agly valley,  Roussillon. From there many gifted winemakers has made it to the headlines, from Gérard Gauby, via Olivier Pithon to Tom Lubbe, and so on…

Jean-Philippe Padié deserves a place in that gallery. He was probably the first in the village to end the family’s tradition of delivering to the cooperative and start bottling himself.

Padié studied agronomy in Montpellier. He has also had training periods at reknowned producer Mas Amiel, and also at Gauby, before he started in the family business in 2003.

The wine was made from three grapes; grenache blanc 50%, macabeo 40%, and grenache gris 10%. It was fermented spontaneously in used barrels, and bottled unfiltered.

Dom. Padie Fleur de Cailloux 2016

Fleur de Cailloux 2016 (Dom. Padié)

Light yellow, slightly cloudy. Waxy, mature and floury apples, apricot, dried fruits, aromatic herbs. Medium body, integrated acidity, long and fruity finish.

Price: Medium

Food: Light meat, salads, cheeses

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Wine of the Week

Matassa’s red Coume de l’Olla 2015

We have talked about Domaine Matassa several times. Read here about one of their white wines, and here is something from another project that New Zealand born winemaker Tom Lubbe is involved in.

The white Coume de l’Olla is a lovely, citrusy skin-contact wine. Today we had the red wine with the same name at a restaurant.

It’s made from grapes biodynamically farmed in the Calce region, on the northeast side of the Pyrenees. They are grenache 70%, grenache gris 20%, and macabeo 10%. The must was spontaneously fermented and aged in cement tanks.

Coume de l’Olla 2015 (Dom. Matassa)

Light ruby. Aromatic, smells of red fruits, both sweet and sour (plum, cherry, cranberry), floral overtones and hints to truffles and mature cheeses too. Quite soft, fleshy, but just enough tannin to bind it together, a fresh, natural acidity and some spice in the finish.

Price: Medium

Food: Light meat, salads and much more. At an Italian restaurant we tried it today with four different dishes, and it performed brilliantly with vitello tonnato (veal in tuna mayonnaise) and pasta with a creamy sauce and mushrooms.

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