Introducing Domaine Cotzé

From his home in Enveitg in the Pyrénées, just a stone’s throw from the Spanish border, winemaker Wilfried Garcia is forging new traditions in this high-altitude, little-planted region. Born and raised here, Garcia enjoyed the outdoors and participated in hotelier and restaurant work before deciding to pursue a fledgling interest in wines. Joining winemaker Tom Lubbe of Roussillon’s Domaine Matassa over two seasons, he picked up an array of experience and skills before deciding to find his way back to the Pyrénées where he has now started an ambitious winemaking project on his own.

As part of this new project, Wilfried purchased and planted 2 hectares of vines on the steep slopes where his cellar is based, at about 1300m of elevation. Co-planted among the two hectares are Mondeuse, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chasselas, Chardonnay, Jacquère and Savagnin.

While Wilfried waits for these vines to reach maturity, he produces négociant wines with fruit sourced from friends in the Rouissillon of Domaine Les Salicaires. Fruit from Salicaires is all organically farmed and grows from two main sites, one in Opoul and one in Canet. Both sites are only about 1km from the Mediterranean and sit on a bedrock of limestone and chalk soils; the Canet site finds more alluvial topsoil.

Despite their warm-weathered origins, the wines pulled from the tank in Wilfried’s cellar feel decidedly cool-climate, and representative of their new home in the mountains - each demonstrates a bracing acidity and wonderfully crystalline structure about them. The future certainly looks promising for this young winemaker and we couldn’t be happier to see his first cuvées arrive on our shores.

Wilfried’s wines are available on our online shop. For trade inquires, email sales@beattieandroberts.com.