Les Terres de Fagayra

【Amber drops, born of sky and stone】

Les Terres de Fagayra lies at the far northern edge of the village of Maury, in the Roussillon of southern France — a raw, wind-scoured landscape under a blazing sun. Maury has long been famous for its vins doux naturels, and even here the domaine has put down roots in one of the harshest parcels of all. In 2008 Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet, of the celebrated Domaine Roc des Anges, were captivated by the potential sleeping in this single site and set it up as a small estate in its own right. The soils are lean schist and calcareous schist, so shallow that bedrock breaks the surface barely a metre down. It is precisely that severity that drives the old vines to send their roots deep in search of water, and to ripen fruit of remarkable concentration.

Farming converted to organics in 2009, with biodynamic certification following in 2011. In the vineyard the hand is kept as light as possible, and the harvest is fermented gently on indigenous yeasts alone. No showy technique — simply the memory of the place, quietly sealed into the glass. What emerges is the vin doux naturel that Maury has made for centuries. Across a range of Blanc, Grenat and Rouge, each with its own character, it is the sun-soaked Grenache that rises to a complex perfume of dried fig, cacao and spice; the texture is silk, and beneath it a clear seam of acidity draws the whole wine into focus.

Praised by Robert Parker and La Revue du Vin de France among critics worldwide, these are wines in which the southern sun and the wild ground it beats down on seem concentrated into a single drop. The domaine has since passed into new hands, but the philosophy it was founded on is very much alive. Serve it chilled with blue cheese, or alongside a chocolate dessert — a wine for a special evening, or for the unhurried hours after dinner. Take your time with it.