Os Goliardos - Vinhos de Terroir Europeus

Alain Carrere and his wife Agnès created Domaine Majas in 1992, starting with 2 ha and gradually recovering several plots, including his father’s vineyards, to reach 30 ha in 2007. During the first years, they sold the grapes to the local Cooperative and then began to vinify, but with the amount cultivated, they made conventional choices: in viticulture with the planting of “Bordalese” (Merlot, Cabernet-Sauvignon) or international (Chardonnay) varieties and in vinification with exogenous yeasts and a style adapted to the mass market in order to sell in supermarkets and sell a large part of the production. The 2007 meeting with Tom Lubbe of domaine Matassa was the engine of a total change of approach with the conversion to organic farming and a work in the winery that limits interventions as much as possible to express the terroir of the farm, located at the foot of the Pyrenees, in village of Caudiès de Fenouillèdes, with clay-limestone soils and schist areas. Carignan is the queen variety, magnified here in the Col de Segas cuvée produced from strains over 100 years old, supplemented with Syrah (Ravin des sieurs cuvée), Grenache noir, Merlot (rosé), Cabernet sauvignon and Cabernet Pyrenees-Franc in less quantity. In white, Macabeu with some very old vines, Rolle (also called Vermentino), Chardonnay and Chenin make up the blends or participate in monovarietal wines. Vinification is essentially carried out in cement vats and the wines, with the exception of Col de Segas, are bottled early.