Label: Mas Mellet
Vintage: 2025
Fruit: Roussanne, Vermentino, Grenache Blanc, Viognier
Region: Costières de Nîmes, Southern Rhône, France
ABV: 

charming candour / lush peach / im snacking what you're packing

This is pure, mineral and mouthwatering - the classic Vermentino-like acidity gives the wine a brilliant backbone, with fleshy white fruit wrapped tightly around it. White peach, lemon oil, crushed herbs, and that signature saline whisper the estate does so well. Genuinely one of the most interesting whites in the Rhône.

In 2002, barely twenty years old, Emilie and Brice Bolognini took on a serious, 27-hectare project of completely abandoned vines in the Gard, and produced their first vintage the following year. From the outset they did things differently - converting early to organics, certified since 2007, and eventually embracing biodynamics fully. They slowed down, pared back, planted hundreds of trees (mimosa, pomegranate, olive, fig) and let sheep graze the vines through winter. They downsized from 27 hectares to 16, and every sacrifice was worth it.

However, their natural wine epiphany came from a glass shared with Eric Pfifferling of Domaine de l'Anglore at the Feria de Nîmes in 2006. The three became fast friends and eventually collaborators.  Pfifferling helped guide Brice and Emilie from organic to true low-intervention winemaking.  If you are familiar with the wines of L'Anglore you will feel Pfifferling's influence all over the wines of Mas Mellet through freshness and distinct salinity.  It also helps that Mas Mellet sits just a few hundred metres from the first saltpans of the Camargue, and that proximity, that lick of brine in the air, finds its way into every bottle.

All work in the vines is done by hand. Indigenous yeasts, no inputs, no filtration, no fining. Minimal, if any, sulphites only at bottling. The aim: wines full of character and freshness that demonstrate the highest integrity of the Costières de Nîmes. They've more than delivered. We're thrilled to have them.