Gavatx — pronounced Gabatch — means "foreigner" in Catalan. There's something quietly subversive about a white wine from the deep south of France that plays entirely by its own rules.
A blend of Carignan Gris and Blanc — vines over 100 years old — Maccabeu at 80 years, and a splash of Mourvèdre blanc de noir, this is not a wine you'd easily place in a blind tasting. Slightly tinted, it opens with notes of lilac and small red fruits, then reveals a fresh, slender palate with a finely spiced grip — part white wine, part something altogether harder to define.
The terroir is extraordinary: schist and granite soils at between 400 and 600 metres altitude, farmed organically, with hand harvesting and traditional winemaking using only indigenous yeasts. The soils date back to the Ordovician period — 460 million years old — granite rare in France, with a world-famous track record at Hermitage for producing wines of remarkable depth and minerality.
Arthur and Eddy Bertrand took over the domaine in 2020, inheriting a legacy built on two decades of organic farming and a collection of ancient vines that few vignerons could dream of. Dolce et Gavatx is the most vivid expression of what those vines — and this extraordinary corner of the Roussillon — can do with white grapes.
Serve cool, and prepare to be surprised.