Matthieu Barret ‘Black Flag’ Rouge 2021

Location: France, Rhône

Winemaker: Matthieu Barret

Grapes: Syrah

Soil: clay, limestone

Winemaking: Harvested by hand in small cases by Barret and his team. 100% de-stemmed. 15 days of maceration in stainless steel. Racking and pressing when fermentation is complete. Must settling to age on fine lees. 12 months of aging in concrete tank. Racking. Bottling with 2g/HL of sulfites added.

‘Black Flag’: the fruit comes from Vincent Fargier (Domaine Les Deux Terres), certified organic estate from Ardèche. Barret himself harvests and brings the grapes to his winery. The estate is located 1 hour driving distance from Cornas.

From the Importer Bobo Selections: Our Jerry Garcia of the Northern Rhône, biodynamic since 2001, Matthieu sits alone with his Vallée du Coulet parcels, his cement eggs and a deference to the purity of savage. His biosphere is in Cornas.

Matthieu Barret was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1975 and studied viticulture in Beaune.

He is the 7th generation vigneron and joined his grandfather in Cornas in 1997. Previously, his family had only been farming and selling grapes.

In Beaune, Matthieu discovered immediately his proclivity with organic viticulture and with living ecosystems. Beginning with the first vintage in 2000, Matthieu worked principally in the vineyard, applying his hand with organic viticulture. Not content with his end result, in 2006 he decided to radically change his vinification process by using less barrels and replacing them with concrete eggs. His ongoing evolution and pursuit of purity and expression continue to dominate his chais.

In 2012, he stopped using machines in Cornas and replaced them with mules, horses, and manual labor. He also started to create ‘green spaces’ around the farm, digging watering holes to nourish an ecosystem with a diversity of species. ie: vines and the forest, meadows and woodlands.

According to Matthieu, the plant is happier in a wild environment rather than in a desert comprised of only vines. This diversity brings a distinct identity to his grapes; when the vineyard biome is treated with respect, he says, this balance is easier to maintain.

Matthieu owns 11 ha in Cornas with of the total 150 ha in the AOP, including his monopole ‘Vallée du Coulet’ in the northern most part of Cornas, most famous for its impossible steep grade and its exposure to Le Mistral. Le Mistral is a famous current of wind that blows from Lyon and ends in Provence. It’s a maddening wind, that keeps this vineyard spectacularly dry even in times of rain.