PAUL Mas is a wine business that in 10 short years has become one of the most successful in France – despite being based in a region where most growers struggle even to survive.
It’s a remarkable achievement. Jean-Claude Mas founded his company in January 2000, just after he took over 35 hectares of family vineyard near Pézenas in the sunny heart of the Languedoc, where his father Paul, now 84, after whom Jean-Claude named the business, still lives.
He now owns several estates dotted around the Mediterranean coastal regions of France – a total of around 220 hectares of vines. He also buys grapes on long-term contract deals from 80 other grape growers, who between them farm a further 800 hectares.
And we can’t get enough of his wine. Around 96% of all he makes is exported. The UK is one of his three biggest markets. His wine can be found in Asda, The Co-op, Tesco and Waitrose and it’s one of Majestic’s bestselling brands – they stock no fewer than 14 Paul Mas wines.
“The South of France is the New World of the Old World,” says Brigitte Barreiro, the marketing manager of Paul Mas estates. She may be repeating a company mantra, but these are no empty words. She knows what she’s talking about. Before coming to the Languedoc, she worked for Trapiche, one of Argentina’s biggest and best wine producers.
“We can blend and do things that are not possible in other regions,” she says – the benefit of the light touch of the Vin de Pays rules (now properly known as IGP). With 25 grape varieties to choose from and a huge number of vineyard sites, Jean Claude can play with flavours to his heart’s content.
His aim, insists Brigitte, “is to give the consumer what they like – good wine at a fair price.” Which means, of course, a lot of hard work.
“Jean Claude is amazing. He’s never still. He says we must never rest on our laurels.”
One of his tasks is to taste and check personally every blend before bottling and he gathers all the contracted growers together twice a year to taste and discuss together the wines the estate has made from their grapes.
There are eight ranges of Paul Mas wines, anything and everything from simple, fruity, highly-appealing varietals to sophisticated single estate blends. In fact, I had no idea quite how many wines they made until I began to research this article and went to their headquarters at the Domaine Nicole near Montagnac.
If any one wine typifies the Paul Mas approach it’s the wonderfully self-deprecatory Arrogant Frog brand that Jean-Claude launched in 2004 (available in some Tesco stores). Irreverent, self-confident and approachable, it’s underpinned by uncompromisingly high standards.
The same high standards govern the company’s commitment to sustainability. In many cases “sustainable viticulture” means little more than trying to cut the cost of expensive sprays by using them only in emergency.
Organic viticulture is more demanding. As Brigitte admits, it raises costs by about 25% simply because it’s labour-intensive. You have to remove weeds by ploughing rather than by applying a weed-killer.
But organic viticulture only goes so far. Some certifying bodies are only interested in what treatments are used – or not – in the vineyard, argues Brigitte. “They don’t check the health of the soil, like we do here.”
She says that Jean-Claude is unimpressed by the quality of some organic wines on the market and insists that his estates can work to higher standards.
“Our aim is to recreate life in our soils,” she continues. “We practise a kind of biodynamics, but it’s supported by science and innovation rather than by playing music to the vines.”
This means that you’ll probably not find any buried cow horns full of dung on a Paul Mas Estate to be dug up and used later as a homeopathic spray, but you will find lots of excellent organic manure and small, light Japanese tractors that compact the soil far less than heavier, conventional models. Putting life back into soil that has been abused by agrochemicals takes time and patience. Jean-Claude Mas is in it for the long haul.
But results are already promising. The quality of wine from their sizeable (40 hectare) and fully organic Mas des Tannes Estate, next door to the Domaine Nicole at Montagnac, is impressive, but so is the “emblem wine” of the estate Château Paul Mas, Clos des Mures (a delightfully posh French way of saying “bramble patch”).
It’s a blend of Syrah (Shiraz) with a little Grenache and Mourvèdre aged in barrels for 10 months. A creamy, complex red wine combining deep black cherry and licorice flavours, it has a lingering, salty, mineral finish.
It’s not in the supermarkets, but fairly easily available from a number of independent merchants including Oldbutcherswinecellar.co.uk and will set you back £12.50. Pretty good, I say.
It delivers exactly what the Paul Mas motto proclaims: Luxe Rural – the spirit of the French countryside in a bottle. It’s an affordable luxury, a wine made first and foremost to be enjoyed rather than to be admired.