El Carner VdF rouge 2024

El Carner 2024 is a red natural wine made from Grenache and Macabeu, bottled by Tom Lubbe at Domaine Matassa in the Roussillon. Hazy pink grapefruit in the glass, with sweet red berries, sour cherry and blossom on the nose, underpinned by undergrowth, fruit drops and a hint of vanilla. A scent that awakens rather than weighs down.

The El Carner parcel is one of the sites around Calce, where Tom and Nathalie Lubbe farm 20 hectares scattered across the hills, in many places surrounded by Mediterranean scrubland, cedars and wild rosemary. The soils consist of schist and marl, including black schist and black marl; the garrigue parcels reach up to around 450 metres in altitude. Many of the vines are between 60 and 120 years old. Ecocert certifies what is simply standard practice here: cover crops, compost, manual work, no chemicals.

Grenache and Macabeu, red and white grapes from a single hand. Tom Lubbe ferments his red wines as whole-cluster infusions, often together with white grapes, spontaneously and without additives. No sulphur has left the cellar since 2015, and the wine is neither filtered nor fined. Early picking keeps the alcohol at 10.0% vol.

Strawberry and raspberry, carried by fresh acidity and fine tannin. The structure holds firm, and the low alcohol makes the wine light without ever feeling thin. A wine to dream over, one you happily keep pouring.

In 2003, Tom Lubbe vinified his first vintage literally in his living room; today, Domaine Matassa ranks among the icons of the natural wine scene. El Carner carries that signature: early-picked, no added sulphur, unfiltered.