Rufo

Rufo is a recent addition to the Matassa whites, a Vin de France from the 2023 vintage vinified and bottled at Mas Ferriol in Espira-de-l'Agly, the black-schist property Tom Lubbe added in 2019. Matassa publishes nothing about it, so what follows comes from importers and merchants. They agree it is Macabeu, the Catalan workhorse white of the Agly valley, and most list it as 100 percent; one merchant describes the 2024 as Macabeu with Muscat and other local whites in the field, which may reflect a different vintage or simply a different guess. Nobody names a parcel or a soil for the Rufo fruit; Primal places the vines near Calce rather than at Mas Ferriol (the label says where the wine was made, not where it was grown), one merchant calls the 2024 old-vine, and nobody explains the name.

Where Matassa's other whites typically see long whole-cluster skin macerations, Rufo is the gentle one. Sources split on how gentle: the Ukrainian importer, along with Marée Haute and Primal, say whole bunches pressed directly without maceration, seven months in concrete and old 600-litre tonneaux, bottled unfiltered; other merchants describe half direct press and half a four-day skin maceration, with antihype.wine adding eight months on lees in concrete and 500-litre barrels. The half-and-half account is attached to the 2024 listings, so the two versions may simply describe different vintages; Matassa has not said. All of them agree on indigenous yeasts and no added sulphur, which the label confirms ("sans sulfites ajoutés"), and on a certified organic product. The finished wine is 10 percent alcohol with no residual sugar; this bottle was filled on 3 April 2024.