Ghislaine Magnier, standing near the "casot" . Banyuls and mediterranean sea in the background .
Even though Casot de Mailloles has vineyards strictly on Banyuls Appellation zone, its wines are labelled as Vin de Table (table wine) . But they made their way into the world of fine wines nonetheless .
About 10 years after its foundation, this small estate by its surface has reached an
envied position on the
banyuls wine market with its 100% natural wines . "Casot" is the local name for the vineyard stone shelters that dot the mountain and allowed workers in the past to rest and hide from the weather's hardships ( heat, cold or rain) [ see picture on top ].
We arrived the previous evening, spent the night in a near empty old hotel in the center of the little town . Very quiet town in winter . Many appartments are occupied on the high season only .
Casot des Mailloles's chai is very close, right in front of the church . We had an appointment for 9 am . Ghislaine Magnier is in the place when we show at the door . We could rightly say here they make a garage wine, as the high ceiling space they use as chai and cellar was formerly a Citroën garage repairshop . When Alain Castex looked for available buildings or storage facilities around here, the real estate agent showing him this empty repair shop on street level was sure it would not be suitable . But Alain Castex saw immediately this was the right place . In the chai, a few casks and tronconic vats, and the tiny vertical press through
wich all the juice is extracted [ pictured on the right, with Alain Castex ] . Whites are vinified in 1/2 muids casks , 4 hectoliter and 6 hectoliter . Reds in tronconic vats, 15 hectoliter and 20 hectoliter .
Before coming in the region, Alain Castex was a vigneron in the Corbières region, where he spent 15 years in wineries. That's where he met Ghislaine Magnier. She was originally a city dweller ( Paris region ), until she moved to the south of France and settled in the countryside with her two children. The two of them loved this region they visited as potential location to buy vineyards. Like most vineyards in Banyuls, they are on very steep terrain, with small walled terraces, and need an awful lot of manual work. The estate's surface is about 4 hectares.The smallest of Banyuls domaines by its surface. But consider everything is done mostly by the two of them, sometimes with a third worker, everything including tilling by hand. Much more work here as they don't use chemicals at all. For the harvest, in 2003 they worked for example 24 days, at 6 people. Clusters sorted out on the plot, one by one. Yields : some thing between 10 and 15 hectoliter/hectare. About 5000 bottles a year altogether.
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