2023 Quartet

We always look forward to the arrival of our supply of Mataburro Quartet. It is created from Grenache Noir, Muscat à Petits Grains, and Muscat d’Alexandrie with directly-pressed Syrah. The wine is very light. You may find a slight bubble or two when you first open this wine but these will disappear fairly quickly. We should add here that this is often regarded as a fault in winemaking. This is simply because the wine competitions need things to take off marks for and they chose the presence o...Read More...

We always look forward to the arrival of our supply of Mataburro Quartet. It is created from Grenache Noir, Muscat à Petits Grains, and Muscat d’Alexandrie with directly-pressed Syrah.

The wine is very light. You may find a slight bubble or two when you first open this wine but these will disappear fairly quickly. We should add here that this is often regarded as a fault in winemaking. This is simply because the wine competitions need things to take off marks for and they chose the presence of tiny amounts of carbon dioxide as one of the ways to do this.

They haven’t caught up with the fact that the world of winemaking has moved on, and many natural winemakers, especially those who add no sulphites at any time, often bottle the wine with a tiny amount of residual sugar remaining. Once the wine is bottled this sugar is converted to carbon dioxide by any remaining yeast in the wine. What these winemakers have achieved is a way of controlling any bacteria in the wine which is far more effective than adding sulphites. So, for us, it can hardly be called a fault if that is what the winemaker is trying to achieve.

It underwent semi-carbonic maceration and then was matured in a concrete vat. The fermentation was, of course, carried through with only the natural yeasts on the grapes. The alcohol level is 12%.

This wine has no additions, including no added sulphites (sans sulphites ajoutés on the label), and no fining or filtration.

It is called Quartet because it was the fourth cuvée (after Idoine, Mura Mura and Otium) that Melissa and Laurent made.

After pressing most of it was aged in a concrete vat (also from Alain Castex) plus there were two barrels. The wine is quite silky, something Laurent attributes to the concrete. - Living Wines, Importer. 

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