Le Casot Des Mailloles

Alain Castex was a vigneron in the Corbières region, where he spent 15 years working in different wineries. That's where he met Ghislaine Magnier. She was originally a city dweller (Paris region), until she moved to the south of France and settled in the countryside with her two children. The two of them fell in love with the regiona and started to look to buy some vineyards.

Like most vineyards in Banyuls, the “Casot Des Mailloles” vineyards are on very steep terrain, with small walled terraces and most work is manual. "Casot" is the local name for the vineyard stone shelters that dot the mountain and allowed workers in the past to rest and hide from the weather's hardships (heat, cold or rain). The estate's surface is about 4 hectares. The smallest in the Banyuls Appellation! On the Domaine, most of the work is done by Ghislaine and Alain. They do not use any chemicals. The yields are very low with an average annual production of 5,000 bottles.

Ghislaine and Alain run their estate fully organically: hand harvest, short pruning, rare destemming, no fining, and no filtration. They use biological means to fight pests and diseases like hormones trap for maybugs that parasite the vines.

Even though Casot de Mailloles has vineyards strictly on the Banyuls Appellation zone, its wines are labelled as "Vin de Table" (table wine). But they made their way into the world of fine wines nonetheless. About 10 years after its foundation, this small Domaine has reached an envied position on the  Banyuls wine market with its natural wines.