Domaine Le Roc des Anges
Appellation: Côtes Catalanes
Proprietor: Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet
Year Founded: 2001
Size: 40 hectares
Farming Practice: Biodynamic
Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet met as students in agronomy and oenology. From the beginning of their relationship, they had a common goal: to make their own wine, together. One day, while Stéphane was working in the cellar at Mas Amiel, a man approached Stéphane to tell him that the Roc Blanc vineyard was up for sale—the same vineyard the couple had strolled through the weekend before, daydreaming about the vines they would one day love to farm. The Roc Blanc was a steep quartz-veined vineyard, planted to ancient Carignan. Both Marjorie and Stéphane were so excited about the serendipitous opportunity that they bought the vineyard, the first parcel of what would soon be known as Roc des Anges.
Marjorie was 23 years old and Stéphane was 28. Neither had family in the region nor came from winemaking families. At the time, the decision to jump headfirst into such an ambitious project was easy: both were full of life and ambition and trusted their gut, as twenty-somethings tend to be. “The energy that jump-starts the project stays with the winemaker for a while, it’s the aura that surrounds the project”, Marjorie says.
Each new parcel Marjorie and Stéphane decided to acquire was hand-picked: they wanted old grape varieties, perfect soil, and exposition, like the Roc Blanc. Often that meant buying vineyards that had not been kept up for years or even decades, but that didn’t matter: they would take care of each vine, nursing the plants back to life even if that meant extremely low yields.
After 13 years as winemakers in the Roussillon, Marjorie and Stéphane built their home, tasting room and winery on a parcel tucked away between the villages of Montner and Latour de France. The decision was born out of a visceral need to be immersed in nature, to be grounded, connected, living, and breathing the Roussillon. With thick stone walls for natural temperature control and optimal space for organization, the winery also would allow Marjorie and Stéphane to make wine with minimal intervention without compromising precision.
While the intent of the winery project was to aim high with respect to the area, it attracted a lot of criticism and jealousy from neighbors and journalists. Ultimately Marjorie and Stéphane had no choice but to stop worrying about what other people would think of their project, of them as people, or of their wines.
Today, Roc des Anges is a kind of free-agent winery, bottling a mind-bending range of old to ancient-vine blends and single-varietal cuvées with a mineral streak that, in a way, resemble the wines from the north more so than what typically comes out of the Languedoc-Roussillon. Roc des Anges is a place of open experimentation, where the goal is to “make wines that are authentic, sincere, and that are unique because they express the energy of the terroir”, as Marjorie puts it.
Wines:
Varietal/Blend: Grenache gris, Macabeu and Grenache blanc
Vineyard Area: From twenty different plots on the northern side of the Força Real in Montner— vines were planted from 1919 to 2008 and yields are normally very low (15 hL/ha on average).
Soil: Light topsoil of very old schist derived from the compaction of pure clay which is high in silica
Vinification: Manually harvested in 20 kg bins. Fermentation in 500 and 228-liter barrels on native yeast.
Maturation: The wine remains in 500-liter foudres with a light filtration prior to bottling
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Grenache noir, Carignan and Syrah
Vineyard Area: From parcels on the northern slope of Força Real in Montner — vines are 30 to 40 years old and are the youngest of the domaine. Yields are 25 hL/ha on average.
Soil: Light topsoil of sand (first meter) and very old schist, high in silica
Vinification: Manual harvest, some whole-cluster inclusion, fermentation on native yeast and a week-long maceration in 24 to 65-hectoliter concrete vats for 7 days (no punch-downs or pump-overs).
Maturation: 9 months in concrete tanks
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Syrah (grafted from the Saint-Joseph clone known as "Serine")
Vineyard Area: From a single parcel in the village of Montner on the northern slope of the Força Real— vines were planted in 2001.
Soil: Schist with clay
Vinification: Manual harvest, some whole-cluster inclusion, fermentation and maceration in concrete vats for 7 days (no punch-downs or pump-overs) before transferring the wine to stainless steel where malolactic conversion is carried out.
Maturation: 10 months in stainless steel tanks
Varietal/Blend: Syrah (80%) and Carignan (20%)
Vineyard Area: The vines are situated on the northern slope of Força Réal in the village of Montner of the Pyrénées-Orientales / Northern Catalunya area, rooted in poorest soils of the vineyard known to yield small, very concentrated berries (yields are 18 hL/ha on average) — Syrah vines were planted in 2001 and the Carignan vines were planted around 1940.
Soil: Light topsoil of very old schist derived from the compaction of pure clay, high in silica
Vinification: Manual harvest, some whole-cluster inclusion during a 7-day maceration (no punch-downs or pump-overs) in 20 and 65-hectoliter cement tank.
Maturation: 9 months in cement tank
Varietal/Blend: Carignan
Vineyard Area: From a parcel planted in 1903 on the north side of the Força Real mountain in the village of Montner — yields are 15 hL/ha on average.
Soil: Old schist, light and rocky soils
Vinification: Picked by hand in cases of 20 kg. Fermentation is carried on native yeasts in cement tank with whole bunches.
Maturation: Refinement in cement tank and 500 liter barrels for 14 months. No action's taken during maturation except topping up.
Marketing Materials:
Varietal/Blend: Grenache blanc, Grenache gris, Grenache noir, Carignan blanc, Carignan gris, Carignan noir, Muscat, Macabeu, Mourvèdre and Cinsault
Vineyard Area: From two vineyards on the northern slope of the Força Real —one planted in the 1950s and the other planted in the 2010s from the cuttings of the older vineyard. Yields are just 15 hL/ha on average.
Soil: Light topsoil of old schist derived from the compaction of pure clay which is high in silica
Vinification: Manual harvest in small bins. Whole-cluster inclusion during press and then fermented a mix of old barrels of 500 liters and 228 liters (allowing malolactic conversion)
Maturation: Matured in 500-liter foudres and 228-liter barrels. A light filtration is carried out before to bottling.
Marketing Materials:
