Les Roussilles - Mattia Carfagna
Châteaugay - Auvergne
We met Francesco, the first of the Carfagna’s, in 2017. The setting was our annual Fête du Vin, or Festa del Vino for that year, as it was held at the ancient Tuscan estate of our friends Giovanna Tiezi and Stefano Borsa from Pācina. Yet it was not until several years later – long after we began importing the wines of Familia Carfagna – that we reconnected with Francesco’s eldest, Mattia. By then, Mattia had already settled into the commune of Châteaugay in the Auvergne.
Mattia used to work in his family’s vines with Francesco and his sister Irene on the Isola del Giglio, a tiny, sun-scorched island off the Tuscan coast. We learnt that Mattia’s path took him from the Tyrrhenian Sea into the kitchens of Paris, where he worked alongside selling the Altura wines in France. With time, and a network in place, Mattia moved into distribution of Italian wines and produce.
The business of procuring Italian cured meats and cheeses often meant long drives from the rolling hills of Tuscany, through the mountainous landlocked provinces of central France. It was during stopovers to visit his Auvergnat vigneron friends that Mattia fell in love with the rural landscapes surrounding the Chaîne des Puys.
An opportune moment came in 2019. Mattia was offered a chance to rent the cellar and a small parcel that formerly belonged to his friends Catherine Dumora and Manu Duveau, who previously made wines as Domaine L’Egrapille. But as the pandemic went into full swing in 2020, Mattia made a decision, and moved from Paris to Châteaugay with his partner Chiara, and began living in their rented cellar, fully committing to working the vines.
As they settled into their new home, Mattia began hunting for parcels of older vines that he could acquire. He found some, planted with Gamay d’Auvergne vines ranging between 80 to 100 years in age. The soils on these parcels are varied: mostly heavy with limestone and clay, but with a smattering of basalt. These became Le Sérail, a bright Auvergnat red which unfolds in bright layers of fruit, bloody minerality and smoke.
Mattia’s Auvergnat vines are supplemented by fruit that he harvests from several rented plots in Faugères in the Hérault. These comprise mature vines of viognier, marsanne, muscat petit grains, syrah and grenache noir growing on clay and schist. Red fruit from the Hérault and Auvergne mingle in Mixed Fish, a zippy red with a distinctly spiced finish; while a dash of viognier offers a gentle aromatic lift to the grenache-based Le Matos from the 2022 vintage. White grapes from Mattia’s southern vines became his white macerations: the noyau-like Blandamba, and the heady and opulent Maron Wine.
