Matassa Rouge VdF 2024

A dry red of striking lightness: 11.0% ABV, soft, juicy, and eminently drinkable. Wild and untamed in structure, yet thoroughly charming throughout. A wine that moves you rather than overwhelms you.

Tom and Nathalie farm 20 hectares around Calce and Espira-de-l'Agly in Roussillon, high-altitude garrigue plots reaching up to around 450 meters, often surrounded by dense scrubland, cedars, fig trees, and wild rosemary. The soils consist of schist and marl, as well as black schist and black marl. Many plots carry vines aged 60 to 120 years.

100% Carignan. Tom Lubbe harvests early, which accounts for the low alcohol level. The reds are made through whole-cluster infusion, spontaneously fermented, without fining or filtration; no sulfur has been added since 2015. The cellar houses large wooden foudres, barriques, clay amphorae, and concrete vessels; Tom Lubbe favors fiberglass, which he considers more neutral than stainless steel.

On the nose, sour cherry, cassis, cranberry, and fig, mingling with elderberry pulp and black olive, followed by juniper, clove, leather, and cocoa, rounded out by fine notes of tobacco and cedarwood. On the palate, soft and fruit-driven, with earthy, mineral notes that coat the mouth pleasantly. Dancing and light, at just 11% ABV.

A natural wine from a region that Tom Lubbe has, since the very first vintage in 2003, harvested for freshness rather than power. Ecocert certification confirms the practices applied in the vineyard: no chemicals, but cover crops, compost, and manual labor. The earthworms have returned.