2021 Mataburro Totem
WINEMAKER: Laurent Roger & Melissa Ingrand REGION: Roussillon, FR VARIETAL: Mourvèdre, Grenache VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic
"Totem is slightly different this year as it is made from Grenache Noir and Mourvèdre. This wine was matured in an amphora to extract more colour and other polyphenols in order to produce a red wine that is slightly darker than their other wines. It is also quite structured, but there is not a hint of harshness with the wine still maintaining the Mataburro signature freshness and lightness.
At our tasting of this wine in 2020 we were impressed with the amazing expression of the Grenache Noir grape that this wine represents. There is fruit at the start, followed by complexity and then an amazing finish where the soft tannins shine through. Tasters used words like soft, dusty and tightly controlled to describe the amazing tannic structure exhibited by the wine. The amphora has certainly delivered! In 2021 the addition of the Mourvèdre has also added further complexity to the wine.
Once again, here is a wine that has benefitted from grapes that have been grown in soil that has been treated with respect through the commencement of biodynamic treatment. As we have said in the introduction above, Laurent and Melissa are now even eschewing tilling and instead simply rolling the grasses and herbs so that they give back to the soil rather than damaging the vital fungal structures through tilling.
This wine has no additions, including no added sulphites, and no fining or filtration." - Living Wines
Mataburro is a small domaine established in Roussillon by rising stars Laurent Roger & Melissa Ingrand. Laurent worked for several years at the venerable Paris bar à vin Le Verre Volé and after that returned to Roussillon to work directly with Alain Castex, then of Le Casot des Mailloles. Towards the end of 2017, armed with what he had learned from Castex, he and Melissa took over the remaining three hectare vineyard from his father, swiftly converting to organics and biodynamics. Alain Castex taught Laurent the importance of the soil. He also had this concept reinforced by Tom Lubbe and Axel Prüfer.