Domaine Matassa is the Roussillon project of winemaker Tom Lubbe, a New Zealander who grew up in South Africa. In the late 1990s he worked at Domaine Gauby in Calce, where he met his future wife, Nathalie Gauby, and decided to settle. The Matassa story began after Tom and friend Sam Harrop bought the high-altitude Clos Matassa vineyard in 2001; the domaine followed soon after, with early vintages made in very simple conditions and strong help from the Gauby family. The goal from day one was to keep old vineyards alive and express their place with as little interference as possible.

Today Matassa farms organically with biodynamic ideas, treating the estate like a small ecosystem. Most vines are very old and often co-planted with traditional Catalan varieties such as Carignan, Lladoner Pelut (Grenache), Grenache Gris, Macabeu and Muscat. In the cellar, Tom uses native yeasts, whole-bunch ferments and gentle extractions; many whites see skin contact, a choice he moved toward in the 2000s to suit the region’s warm, dry climate. Wines are unfined, unfiltered, and sulfur is used only when needed. The aim is simple: fresh, digestible wines that you can enjoy at the table, without losing the character of these historic vineyards.

If you’re curious where to start, look for Matassa bottlings from old-vine parcels and the light, bright reds and textured skin-contact whites that have made this small Calce domaine a favorite among natural-wine drinkers.