Brutal Orange VdF 2024

An orange wine that needs no make-up: 10.0% ABV, dry, carried by salinity and acidity. At Matassa, this low alcohol level is no accident but the result of early picking – Tom Lubbe wants wines he enjoys drinking every day, built on freshness rather than power.

Domaine Matassa is located in Calce, in Roussillon. Tom Lubbe, a New Zealander with South African roots, came for an internship with Gérard Gauby and never left; today, together with Nathalie Lubbe, he farms 20 hectares scattered across the hills around Calce and Espira-de-l'Agly, often surrounded by Mediterranean scrubland, cedars, fig trees and wild rosemary. The soils are schist, marl, black schist and black marl. Many plots carry vines aged 60 to 120 years.

Single-varietal Macabeu from very old vines on schist-rich soils, hand-harvested. Three to four weeks of maceration, spontaneous and with whole clusters, followed by ageing in used 500-litre casks. Unfiltered, unfined, no added sulphites – since 2015 no SO₂ has left this cellar.

On the nose, peach, apricot and grapefruit zest, joined by sweet blossoms, anise, candied fennel and liquorice; above that, iodine and the cool impression of a sea breeze. On the palate, dry, with pure freshness, pleasant phenolics and a gentle bitterness. The saline notes and lively acidity give the wine its tension, which lingers long in the memory.

The wine is dedicated to the Bar Brutal in Barcelona. The farming is Ecocert-certified: no chemicals, instead cover crops, compost and manual labour. Tom Lubbe has specialised in soil health, and the earthworms are back.