Matassa Cuvée Marguerite 2025

The Land

Marguerite is drawn from three parcels around Calce, in the Agly Valley north of Perpignan, and unlike the estate's Coume de l'Olla bottlings it comes off schist and marl rather than clay and limestone. That distinction is the whole wine. Schist holds heat and drains hard, marl holds water and slows things down, and the combination gives a skin-contact white with more grip, more depth, and a darker aromatic register than the lighter limestone parcels produce. The vines average around 50 years old. The Tramontane wind that hammers this valley off the Pyrenees is the other half of the equation, stressing the vines and keeping alcohol modest in a corner of France that has no business making wines this fresh.

The Wine

A co-fermented blend of Macabeu, Muscat a Petits Grains, and Muscat d'Alexandrie, brought in whole cluster and fermented on skins in cement, then aged in 2500-liter foudres. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away: no fining, no filtration, no sulfur at any stage. The large foudre matters here. It lets the wine breathe and integrate the skin tannin over time without contributing any oak flavor, which is why Marguerite has more texture and a longer finish than the concrete-only cuvees. Dried apricot, quince, bergamot, dried herbs, beeswax, and salted orange, with a tannic grip through the middle and a long, savory, slightly bitter close. It is a skin-contact wine that behaves like a serious white rather than a novelty.

The People

The cuvee is named for Nathalie Lubbe's grandmother, a family matriarch, and the naming is characteristic of how Tom Lubbe works. A New Zealander raised in South Africa, he came to Calce to work harvest at Domaine Gauby in the late 1990s, married into the family, and founded Matassa in 2003. Gerard Gauby gave him the old Gauby cellar in 2004 after learning the first vintage had been made in the couple's living room. Today the estate farms 20 hectares of certified organic vineyard across schist, marl, black slate, and black marl, and has not added sulfur to a single wine since 2015.

Food Pairing

This has the structure to handle food that would flatten most whites. Pork belly with fennel and orange, a whole roasted branzino with olives and preserved lemon, lamb kofta with yogurt and mint, or a plate of Comte and quince paste all work. The tannin cuts through fat, the acidity handles citrus and vinegar, and the dried-herb and bitter-orange notes meet North African and eastern Mediterranean spicing directly. If you are opening it for a meal, pull the cork half an hour early and serve it in a proper white wine glass rather than something small.