Domaine de l'Horizon "Mar i Muntanya" Cotes Catalanes Rouge, Languedoc-Roussillon, France 2022

FROM ROSENTHAL:

THE WINE: Syrah (45%), Carignan (45%), Grenache (10%). “Mar y Muntanya” (“Sea and Mountains” in Catalan) combines 45% each Syrah and Carignan with a splash of Grenache, raised in a mix of cement vat and large oak barrel. Semi-carbonic maceration gives this wine a certain lift and fruit-driven exuberance, though its easygoing vinification does nothing to hamper its expression of stoniness and garrigue-y depth. This wine has the spirit of a Côte de Beaune rouge, showing just how distinct Calce is from its neighbor Languedoc-Roussillon. It may lack the imposing depth of L’Horizon’s more serious wines, but it’s hard to imagine one from this region that is more satisfyingly delicious.

THE PRODUCER: As one might expect, making wine in Calce is no easy task. There are many ancient, untrained vines here-gnarled, soulful, wind-beaten entities well into their second century of existence, in vineyards of pure rock, stretching their weathered limbs out in all directions and making machine work impossible. Profound but stingy old vines that, even in bountiful years, offer forth barely twenty hectoliters per hectare of juice. It takes an almost superhuman level of dedication, perseverance, vision, and spirit to tend these vineyards, to forge wine from the thick blood of these imposing old vines. A tiny, maniacally dedicated group of vignerons known casually as the "Calce school" proudly cultivates this difficult land. A few decades ago, the visionary Gerard Gauby began steering his methodology in a more natural direction, working organically, and manipulating the wines as minimally as possibly in the cellar to allow the profound and singular terroir of Calce to express itself as arrestingly as possible. In his wake, a few very small wineries have forged a path of non-interventionism and purity of expression, and it's difficult to imagine a more intense concentration of thoughtful, committed individuals anywhere in the world of wine.

At the forefront of this movement is Thomas Teibert, founder and owner of Domaine de l'Horizon. German-born Thomas has enjoyed a successful and influential career in wine-as the winemaker for Manincor in the Alto Adige, as the export manager and long-time salesperson for the hugely regarded Stockinger cooperage in Austria, and as a consultant for a variety of small wineries in France and Italy. When he met Gerard Gauby in 2005 and became acquainted with the difficult soul of Calce, he knew immediately that he wanted to make wine there. After all, Calce provides the ultimate challenge, but provides perhaps the ultimate reward-somehow, it is a perfectly logical place for someone of Teibert's vast experience and ability to want to call home.