Mataburro – Introduction
Roussillon is the Catalan region of France lying on the Mediterranean side of the country in sight of the Pyrenees mountains that divide Spain from France.
Mataburro is the name of small domaine established in Roussillon by rising stars Laurent Roger and Melissa Ingrand. Their wines are natural and very delicious!
On our visit to their winery and vineyards this year the quality of the wines was as high as ever due to the attention, love and care with which they tend their vineyards and apply to their wines.
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 set up Mataburro as their brand and took over the remaining three hectare vineyard from his father and are returning it to its organic past.
In 2019 they started biodynamics and they are using cover crops to improve the soil quality. In fact, during our morning of walking around all of their vineyards in the spring of 2022 we were very impressed with their understanding of the role the soil plays in the vineyard. The same applied in 2024 when we visited.
Alain Castex taught Laurent the importance of the soil. He also had this concept reinforced by Tom Lubbe and Axel Prüfer.
Now, Mataburro consists of almost 5 hectares of vines, split into several parcels near Rivesaltes and Espira-de-l’Agly in Roussillon, Laurent and Melissa’s objective is always to make fresh wines which have low % alcohol, wines that are suitable for drinking in the hot Mediterranean climate in which they live. It also makes them very welcome arrivals for this time of year in Australia.
The winemaking at Mataburro usually consists of short macerations of whole bunches with no foot stomping to limit the extraction. They believe that foot stomping makes wines that are less delicate.
All macerations take place in fibreglass with, for the most part, the wines aged in stainless steel. The wines are not filtered and have no added sulphites. Laurent recommends serving all Mataburro wines in a carafe.
The photo below was taken in the Mataburro cellars. It shows a large stainless steel vat containing the 2019 juice for the Idoine cuvee which we will be receiving this year.
In an email sent by Laurent and Melissa recently they talked about the difficulty they have had over the past couple of years due to the droughts experienced in the south of France:
We have been experiencing a severe drought since 2021 (250 mm of rain per year on average) which is causing the entire vineyard to suffer. Despite the vines being greatly weakened by this lack of water, and thanks to a lot of work in the vineyard, we are still happy with our harvest, we brought in some nice grapes, the fermentations went well and the juices are delicate as we wanted!!
Mataburro Otium 2023
The Mataburro Otium 2023 is predominantly Grenache, made from the old vines planted by Laurent’s grandfather in 1949, 80 years ago. The vines are in the Rivesaltes district. These vines therefore have the ability to produce wines of complexity and charm.
It is so good to see vines of this age being productive and providing grapes for interesting wines such as this. Unfortunately, the undeniable increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is leading to new vines growing more quickly and therefore lacking the cellular structure required for them to last many years. Some recently planted vineyards have been failing after 15 years!
They picked the Grenache grapes which then had 4 to 5 days of maceration. The reason for the short maceration is that Laurent and Melissa do not want too much extraction to occur so that the wine is not too tannic.
Laurent describes it as a kind of semi-carbonic maceration. The wine was matured in a concrete vats formerly owned by Alain Castex.
The wine has just arrived in Australia and a few hours later we held a tasting and the wine was perfect. It is light, ethereal and absolutely clean and delicious! It’s very light, almost the colour of watermelon.
This wine has no additions, 11.5% alcohol, including no added sulphites, and no filtration or fining.
RRP: $63 (SOLD OUT)
Mataburro Idoine 2023
Mataburro Idoine 2023 is from Merlot vines that are 30 – 40 years old which were planted by Laurent’s father in quite heavy clay soils.
Vinified initially in two fibreglass tanks, the whole bunches had five days maceration. As mentioned above for the Otium, this short period of maceration ensures that not too much tannin and other harsh polyphenols are extracted leaving a surprisingly fresh and lively wine, showing that Merlot is capable of presenting many faces if treated properly.
One tank had a little pigeage and the other none to keep the floral aromas from the semi-carbonic maceration.
The two tanks were mixed after pressing and aged in stainless steel tank. This is a very clever way of dealing with Merlot.
It is interesting to see just how good Merlot can be when the wine is made by sympathetic winemakers.
Now that so many consumers are moving to lighter styles of red wine rather than the brutish wines of twenty years ago, Merlot is finding a niche.
They found the name ‘Idoine’ in a book Laurent’s uncle had written. It means ‘the good stuff’. We agree!
This wine has no additions, including no added sulphites, and no fining or filtration. 12% alcohol.
RRP: $60 (SOLD OUT)
Mataburro Mura Mura 2023
Mataburro Mura Mura, a name is inspired in part by Melissa’s Madagascan heritage (it means slowly, slowly), but we discovered later they are also aware that the name has a connection to Australia’s dreamtime, being an important part of the stories of the Diyari people who inhabit an area to the East of Lake Eyre.
The 2023 vintage, a rosé, is a blend of three different parts which were picked at different times.
The first part, which was macerated for 2 days, contains Muscat à Petits Grains, Merlot and a little Grenache Noir.
Part 2 is Grenache Noir and Merlot, with 2 days of maceration. The final part is from a maceration of Muscat d’Alexandrie (7-10 days). Eventually all the parts are racked and assembled prior to bottling.
When we first tasted this vintage we were delighted with the lightness (light but slightly darker than last year), freshness and long-lasting flavour exhibited by this wine.
This wine has no additions, including no added sulphites, and no fining or filtration. Alcohol is 11.5%.
RRP: $63 (SOLD OUT)
Mataburro Quartet 2023
We always look forward to the arrival of our supply of Mataburro Quartet. It is created from Grenache Noir, Muscat à Petits Grains, and Muscat d’Alexandrie with directly-pressed Syrah.
The wine is very light. You may find a slight bubble or two when you first open this wine but these will disappear fairly quickly. We should add here that this is often regarded as a fault in winemaking. This is simply because the wine competitions need things to take off marks for and they chose the presence of tiny amounts of carbon dioxide as one of the ways to do this.
They haven’t caught up with the fact that the world of winemaking has moved on, and many natural winemakers, especially those who add no sulphites at any time, often bottle the wine with a tiny amount of residual sugar remaining. Once the wine is bottled this sugar is converted to carbon dioxide by any remaining yeast in the wine. What these winemakers have achieved is a way of controlling any bacteria in the wine which is far more effective than adding sulphites. So, for us, it can hardly be called a fault if that is what the winemaker is trying to achieve.
It underwent semi-carbonic maceration and then was matured in a concrete vat. The fermentation was, of course, carried through with only the natural yeasts on the grapes. The alcohol level is 12%.
This wine has no additions, including no added sulphites (sans sulphites ajoutés on the label), and no fining or filtration.
It is called Quartet because it was the fourth cuvée (after Idoine, Mura Mura and Otium) that Melissa and Laurent made.
After pressing most of it was aged in a concrete vat (also from Alain Castex) plus there were two barrels. The wine is quite silky, something Laurent attributes to the concrete.
RRP: $60 (SOLD OUT)
Mataburro Totem 2023
The Mataburro Totem is slightly different this year as it is made from Grenache Noir and Mourvèdre.
This wine was matured in an amphora as well as old wooden barrels and stainless steel 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.
We are always 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 2023 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. The level of alcohol is 13%.
RRP: $70 (SOLD OUT)
Mataburro Memo 2023
This Mataburro cuvee called Memo is Laurent and Melissa’s white wine and a wonderful wine it is! Made from 100% Macabeo (Macabeu), it is saline, mineral, very energetic and with a lovely, light, lingering freshness. The vines for this wine are very old as they were planted 70 years ago and grow on clay and pebbles in Espira-de-l’Agly.
A maceration of whole bunches of Macabeu (5 days for one fibreglass tank and 7 for the other with no intervention during that time). After pressing the wine was aged in fibreglass.
For those of you who are interested in the effect of climate change on vignerons in France, consider the fact that August is traditionally the month that everyone takes their vacation. They return to work at the end of August and then start preparing for the harvest.
However, this year the grapes ripened early due to the higher temperatures experienced during the summer. Laurent and Melissa were preparing to pick the Macabeu in the middle of the month, but ended up picking starting on the 5th August!
This wine has no additions, including no added sulphites, and no fining or filtration. It clocks in at only 11% alcohol.
RRP: $63 (SOLD OUT)
If you want to know more about the wines of the Roussillon region then you can find a summary here.
We also import some amazing vinegars from a producer who operates quite close to some of the vineyards of Laurent and Melissa which you can read about here.
