More about Matassa

Originally from New Zealand, Tom Lubbe was working with the only natural winemaker in South Africa at the time when he managed to score a three month internship at the legendary Domaine Gauby. Gerard Gauby took a liking to him and he came back for three consecutive vintages during which time he fell in love and married Gerard's daughter, Nathalie. The birth of their first child halted Tom's plan of returning to South Africa, opting instead to stay in Calce and start his own estate.

Matassa was founded in 2003, with the first vintage entirely produced in the recently married couple's living room. Gérard felt so bad about this that he gave Tom the old Gauby cellar in 2004. Production was minuscule at first but in short order he was able to purchase 12 hectares of vineyard in and around the village of Calce in the Roussillon and thus was able to increase production to something a bit more financially sustainable.

The vineyards he purchased were populated by old-vines of traditional Catalan varieties: Carignan, Grenache, Macabeu, Grenache Gris, Muscat d'Alexandrie and Muscat de Petits-Grains. Most are massal selection. These old vines are incredibly low-yielding and result in excruciatingly terroir driven wines of intense concentration and focus - the likes of which rarely hail from the south of France. His restorative methods of agriculture are producing grapes of such high quality from these once neglected vineyards that the wine requires no additions.

winemaking is simple and very gentle. After maceration, with some level of whole cluster for both whites and reds, the wines spend time in large demi muids and 225 litre barrels with no new wood since 2007 . They are very lightly filtered in order to more clearly define the wine and increase stability as Tom uses only a tiny amount of sulfur or as is the case with the wines below, none at all. The goal is to always produce a wine of intense and rich fruit that is balanced by profound minerality and fresh acidity.

The wines are iconoclastic. They are nothing like the big and fruity wines that the Languedoc is known for. But clearly the potential to make wines of such distinction exists especially in the mountain valleys of the Roussillon. Even though they are atypical they so clearly speak to their Southern French origin. The whites are reductive upon opening, a sign that they are built for the long haul, but with some air also show off Mediterranean herbal notes and saline minerality along with their copious fresh and exotic fruit. The reds are crunchy yet with fruit that is ripe and warm with spice, garrigue and a deep mineral core. Each wine is imbued with a taut energy that unwinds slowly in the glass revealing layers of complex flavors and aromas. Tom strives to produce wine of elegance through texture and precise balance.

Tom and his wines have rightfully garnered a cult-like following. These are wines loved by natural wine geeks and serious collectors alike. They are joyful and can be deceptively easy to enjoy in their youth but with time in the cellar these will, like the Gauby wines that inspired him, continue to add dimensions. He has been a huge inspiration in his adopted region and has been instrumental in the spread of responsible viticulture as well as reducing additives in the cellar, most notably Jolly Ferriol & Domaine Majas.