Domaine Modat - Côtes du Roussillon De-ci De-là 2022

Bettane & Desseauve

About the domain :

Philippe Modat compensated for the ungratefulness of his job as a clerk at the Commercial Court by breathing new life into his wild gneiss lands in Caramany, with the help of his indefatigable steward Laurent Abet. Today, his sons Quentin and Louis have taken over, with many projects in mind. Irreproachable viticulture, respectful vinification, range building: everything is in place to help the estate grow and evolve. Promising wines, a cellar full of ideas, and a welcome wind of youth blowing through an appellation that needs it more than ever.

Guide Hachette des vins

About the wine:

On soils of gneiss and granitic arena, the white grape varieties (white and gray grenache, macabeu, white carignan) are picked "here and there", scattered among very old red vines, then vinified in foudres and demi-muids, before a 10-month ageing period on lees. The result is a wine that is mineral, lively and taut, with discreet oaky support and a pleasant mellowness on the mid-palate, before a fresh finish of lemon and lychee.

About the domain :

Of Catalan origin, Philippe Modat, a magistrate, is an enlightened wine enthusiast like his father, who also became a winemaker. In 2006, this passion led to the creation of an estate in the Agly valley: 27 hectares of vines on a plateau at an altitude of 300 m, in organic conversion since 2011 (8 hectares in biodynamic viticulture) and an ecologically designed cellar, equipped with photovoltaic cells, inaugurated in 2008.

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

Jancis Robinson

About the wine:

A robust white that really tastes like wind on the brush and stones of a mountain. It's sage and purple sage flowers. It's the smell of your hands when you've been climbing - geosmin and petri - and the smell of moss clinging to the underside of rocks beneath a waterfall. And yet there's sweetness, as it warms and opens in the glass - a sweetness and purity of fruit that became more pronounced as we tasted it over several days. Baked pears, then fuzzy peaches. A hint of caramel at the end.

James Suckling