"New nerves" indeed. This single-plot, single-variety expression of Maccabeu is one of those wines that quietly astonishes. Hawthorn and iodine on the nose lead to a light, refined palate that lifts with a bracing, lively freshness before finishing on saline notes of sea spray, shells, and wet stone.
Maccabeu is a traditional southern variety that rarely gets to show this kind of purity — but on the steep, north-facing slopes of Col de la Done, it finds something rare: finesse. Resolutely mineral, beautifully floral, and almost Burgundian in its orientation, this is a wine that looks away from the sun.
Only 4,500 bottles produced.
Wilfried Vallat came to wine via biochemistry before training in Burgundy at some of its finest domaines. In 2007, he took over 5 hectares of near-abandoned vines in Calce — deep in Gauby territory — and hasn't looked back. Organic farming, minimal intervention in the cellar, and an obsessive respect for terroir define everything he does.