Andrea Calek did not set out to become a winemaker. Born in Czechoslovakia, he left to avoid military service in 1989, drifted across Europe, and only stayed in France because he met someone there. The Ardèche kept him.
Backstory
Calek learned the craft from some of natural wine's most respected names. He trained under Gérald Oustric at Domaine du Mazel, the godfather of Ardèche natural wine, and worked with Guy Breton in Beaujolais and Dominique Hauvette in Provence, where he helped convert the estate to biodynamics. He began farming his own land in Alba-la-Romaine in 2007. His partner Stephana Nicolescu joined the project in 2016.
The Region
The domaine sits in Alba-la-Romaine, in the southern Ardèche on the western edge of the Rhône Valley. The area is defined by old volcanic activity, with basalt and limestone soils, warm Mediterranean-influenced days, and cool nights that help preserve freshness in the reds. It has become one of France's most important natural-wine enclaves, anchored by the Mazel circle that Calek came up through.
Vineyards & Farming
Calek farms roughly five hectares and has worked them completely chemical-free since 2007, with no herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic treatments. Farming is hands-on and low-yielding, with healthy living soils treated as the foundation of everything that follows in the cellar. The scale is small enough that he and Stephana Nicolescu can tend the vines closely by hand.
Winemaking
His approach is uncompromisingly natural: no added sulfites, no fining, no filtration, and no chemical inputs in either vineyard or cellar. Fermentations rely entirely on indigenous yeasts. Reds are built around Syrah, Grenache, and Merlot, with Viognier and Chardonnay among the whites, and Calek has long experimented with other varieties as the mood and the vintage allow. The wines are made to express fruit and place directly, with the depth and complexity that come from clean fruit rather than additives.
The Wines
The range carries playful names that have become cult bottles among natural-wine drinkers: Babiole, A Toi Nous, Blonde, Blanc, and Châtons de Garde, alongside more structured cuvées such as Pénultième. Across the lineup the signature is the same, pure, transparent, additive-free wine from a small Ardèche estate.
