For a long time with a poor reputation - the "big" reds of the Aude - the wines of the Corbières have asserted themselves with the definition of 11 "terroir" entities which respond to the exceptional geological diversity of this vast AOC (10,000 ha) created in 1985, then, in the 2000s, with the emergence of a handful of pioneers committed to the most authentic expression of their terroirs. Maxime Magnon, on the terroir of Durban, is the most emblematic of these pioneers.
Introduced in the 1990s to a natural approach to wine with various estates that are adept at organic farming and vinification without added sulphur (or very little), Maxime Magnon moved to the Aude in the early 2000s, vinifying for an estate in Fitou while beginning to work his first vines in 2002, to which he devoted himself fully from 2005. The estate now has 15 hectares of vines spread over three villages in the "terroir of Durban" in the Hautes-Corbières: Villeneuve-les-Corbières, Durban and Cascatel, with schist or clay-limestone soils. The vines are cultivated with extreme care, by hand and with a caterpillar, without chemical treatments, and the vinification for the reds is carried out in vats with whole bunches at low temperature, in the image of the semi-carbonic maceration practiced by the winegrowers of Marcel Lapierre's "gang" (Morgon), followed by an ageing in barrels. The white wine is vinified in barrels, also at low temperature. A high precision work which aims to magnify the terroir and to favour the aromatic complexity, the balance and the elegance.
Century-old Carignan vines, partly on schist soil and partly on clay-limestone soil, give birth to one of the greatest red wines of the Languedoc, a model of Corbières.
The classic Languedoc red grape varieties combined in a wine that highlights the greediness of the fruit, discreetly spiced, but also the frankness and straightforwardness that make the remarkable drinkability of the vintage.
