This is a rare example of what is one of the oldest forms of winemaking, once found throughout the Mediterranean and now preserved by Catalan tradition on both sides of the French-Spanish border. The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented with native yeasts, without fortification. The youngest vines informing this wine date from 1946; the oldest from 1908. Exposed to the elements and aged for many years in partially filled oak barrels, the resulting wine has what the Roussillon locals call le goût de soleil, the taste of the sun: dry and concentrated, with complex rancio flavors of walnuts, cocoa and curry spices. This wine slumbered in barrels until May 2018.

See related coverage of this product by Wine & Spirits Magazine, February 2020

keeps indefinitely
(50-65ºF)

keeps indefinitely
(55-64ºF)

2-3 oz. pour
(59-64ºF)

About Domaine Fontanel

Domaine Fontanel is located in the historic French Catalonian village of Tautavel, famous for its schistes. Production is traditional and sustainable. Yields stay very low, most of the time less than 30hl/ha. After a precise selection of the grapes, the must is converted into wine using traditional maceration. The vineyard dates from 1864, and the domaine was created in 1989 by fifth-generation vine-growers Pierre and Marie-Claude Fontaneil. In 2017, vintners Elodie and Matthieu Collet became the domaine's new owners, with Pierre staying at their side to ensure the transition. Full details

About Côtes Catalanes IGP

One of the most dynamic IGPs in the greater Languedoc-Roussillon wine region, the Côtes Catalanes IGP encompasses nearly all of the Pyrénées-Orientales administrative départment and most of its appellations: Côtes du Roussillon and Côtes du Roussillon-Villages; Grand Roussillon; Maury and Maury sec; Rivesaltes and Muscat de Rivesaltes. (The diminutive Banyuls and Collioure AOPs are covered by Côte Vermeille IGP.) The climate is Mediterranean, but the terroir itself is quite varied: dark schist, granite, gneiss and clay-limestone soils along its northern slopes; dry, garrigue-scented clay, sand and gravel on the plains around Perpignan. Temperatures, some of France’s most extreme, are moderated by maritime influence and the proximity of the snow-capped Pyrénées. The best hillside slopes cool considerably at night, retaining acidity and freshness in the grapes.

Under the Côtes Catalanes IGP, independent vignerons and cooperatives produce mono-varietal expressions (e.g., Domaine Jorel Carignan ‘Male Care’) not currently endorsed under existing AOPs, as well as wines from international varieties (Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon) that have increasingly found favor amongst some growers and cooperatives. Ironically, the region’s most traditional wine, Rancio Sec - unfortified and fully-oxidized - is also its rarest and falls under the auspices of the Côtes Catalanes (and Côte Vermeille) IGP.