Natural Wine Producers: Working With Nature
Portraits and interviews with the world's finest natural wine producers — farmers and winemakers who work in harmony with terroir, minimal intervention, and a deep respect for the land.
La Cave des Nomades
José Carvalho, a Portuguese musician turned winemaker, built La Cave des Nomades on three hectares of schist-rooted old vines in Banyuls-sur-Mer, creating zero-sulfur wines of startling depth before relocating to Portugal.
Domaine Lampyres
François-Xavier Dauré named his Roussillon estate after the fireflies he resembled while pruning by headlamp before dawn, and now makes additive-free wines from organic and biodynamic vines.
YoYo
Former Paris fashion director Laurence Manya Krief farms five hectares of cliff-side schist in Banyuls-sur-Mer with a mule and radical precision.
Domaine Majas
In the high Agly valley, Alain and Agnès Carrère rebuilt their family estate with Tom Lubbe's help into a benchmark for fresh, low-alcohol Roussillon.
Domaine de l'Horizon
A biodynamic Roussillon estate founded by German winemaker Thomas Teibert at the foot of the Pyrenees, working old Carignan and Grenache around the village of Calce.
Le Debit d'Ivresse
Luc Devot spent years as a cook, fisherman, musician, and educator before finding his calling in a 4.5-hectare plot of schist-rooted vines in Estagel, where he crafts exuberant natural wines that taste unmistakably of the Roussillon.
Les Foulards Rouges
A geology graduate who learned natural wine at a Rhone co-op, Jean-Francois Nicq now coaxes silk from Roussillon granite without additives.
Domaine Matassa
A South African raised in New Zealand, Tom Lubbe coaxes 10 to 12 percent wines from sun-baked Roussillon, chasing pale, weightless reds and textured, vivid whites.
La Petite Baigneuse
Philippe and Céline Wies farm 14 biodynamic, Demeter-certified hectares of ancient schist terraces in Maury, Roussillon, coaxing saline, mineral wines from Lledoner Pelut, Grenache, and Carignan with no sulfur additions.
Casot des Mailloles
A cult no-sulfur domaine on the steep terraces above Banyuls, founded by Alain Castex and Ghislaine Magnier and now carried on by Catalan winemaker Jordi Perez.
Domaine du Possible
After training with Cornas legend Thierry Allemand, Loic Roure rebuilt an old cooperative cellar in Lansac into one of the Roussillon's purest natural-wine voices.
Les Clos Perdus
Former Australian ballet dancer Paul Old has spent two decades tracking down lost Languedoc parcels, building a 20-hectare biodynamic estate that produces some of the Corbières and Roussillon's most compelling natural wines.