- LANGUEDOC -

For a long time with a poor reputation, the wines of the Corbières have asserted themselves with the definition of 11 "terroir" entities that respond to the exceptional geological diversity of this vast Languedoc AOC (10,000 ha) created in 1985, then with the emergence of a handful of pioneers committed to the most authentic expression of their terroirs, like Mazière, an estate created by Jean-Michel Labouygues - an unclassifiable winegrower, a figure of natural wine - and now in the hands of Fabrice Monnin.

Domaine Mazière is located in Padern, a village on the south-western edge of the Corbières, on the southern slopes of Mont Tauch, not far from the Château de Quéribus, in the Verdouble valley. It was created by Jean-Michel Labouygues, a winegrower who was totally outside the then triumphant cultural and oenological practices (1980s-90s). In 2013, Fabrice Monnin, founder of a wine cellar-bistro in Besançon (Les Zinzins du Vin), took over and expanded the vineyard: today, 9 hectares of hillside vineyards surrounded by garrigue, some of which are very old, or even over a hundred years old, and planted with a dozen varieties (grenache, carignan, syrah, macabeu, etc.). In line with the pioneering work of Jean-Michel Labouygues, the vinification is carried out without any kind of artifice, the long maturing (2/3 years) is carried out in old barrels, and the bottling is done without additives or filtration: totally natural wines.