Matassa

Matassa is a serious long-committed Roussillon house that helped define what French natural wine could sound like. Tom Lubbe was born in New Zealand, shuttled between there and South Africa, and learned his winemaking from Louise Hofmeyr at Welgemeend in Paarl - the gospel of indigenous yeasts and low yields, delivered with no room for argument. Curious about Mediterranean grapes, he arrived in Calce in 1999 for what was meant to be a three-month stage at Domaine Gauby. He stayed for three vintages at Gauby and another two at Le Soula. In 2000 he also made an influential wine under The Observatory label in the Swartland - one of the bottles later credited as a catalyst for what became the Swartland revolution.

The real story, though, is simpler. Tom met and married Nathalie, Gérard Gauby's sister. Matassa was founded in 2003 - in their living room, for lack of a cellar. Gérard, feeling partly responsible, handed over the old Gauby cellar the following year. Sam Harrop MW was the third founding partner and later left the project.

Around twenty hectares today, spread across Calce, Espira-de-l'Agly, the Fenouillèdes, and - since 2019 - eight hectares of rare black schist at Mas Ferriol. Two hectares of granite at about 450 metres in the Fenouillèdes. Vine ages run from sixty to roughly 130 years - the oldest Lledoner Pelut at Romanissa is planted on terrain steep enough to punish your knees. The grape portfolio is the Catalan heritage: Grenache Gris, Macabeu, Muscat d'Alexandrie, Muscat à Petits Grains, Carignan, Mourvèdre, Lledoner Pelut - often co-planted as field blends, because that's how Catalans farmed before the French redrew the maps.

Certified organic (Ecocert), with biodynamic preparations used selectively. Tom's deeper obsession is cover crops - he credits them with dropping his alcohol from 13.5% in 2005 to 10.5% by 2018. Native yeasts throughout. Whole-cluster infusion for reds rather than long maceration. Skin contact for whites since Alexandria 2008 - the first Matassa macerated white. Oak is old and used for aeration, not structure. No sulphur additions since the 2015 vintage. Unfiltered, unfined. All bottled as Vin de France - declassified from AOC by choice, because the regulations are a cage Tom prefers to step out of.

The signature is moderate alcohol, restrained tannin, vibrant acidity, mineral freshness. Juicy without being light; serious without being stiff. Matassa has also become a kind of apprenticeship - a generation of young natural-wine makers have either trained at Calce or inherited Tom's old South African vines on the way to their own names.