Jordi Perez

Le Casot des Mailloles (Banyuls-sur-Mer, France)

Photo courtesy Percy Selections

Le Casot des Mailloles is about as legendary as it gets in the world of nature wine. Originally formed by Alain Castex and his ex-partner Ghislaine Magnier in the mid-late 1990s, the two, working out of a former Citroën garage in the Pyrénées-Orientales seaside town of Banyuls-sur-Mer, produced the sorts of wines that even now continue to gain fans who seek out these bottles with a certain romantic fervor. I tend to feel that the drinkers who look out for Castex’s wines say, over certain producers from the Jura, are the lovers who truly get it, never into the hunt just for the hype. I have never met a winemaker whose heart didn’t visibly melt a bit at the mention of Alain’s name, and certainly not after a sip of his wine. To be completely honest, if a drinker that I’ve met hasn’t experienced Castex’s Casot-era wines or doesn’t care to at least seek them out, I find it difficult to take to heart anything they have to say about the world at large of wine.

In 2015 Jordi Perez, Alain’s former assistant, took over the domaine as his mentor left the difficult to work windy, steep slopes above the Mediterranean sea. With such a high watermark to follow, Jordi hasn’t had it easy taking over this esteemed project, especially as the past few years have proved difficult weather wise as well. Though recently it feels like Jordi is now beginning to come into his own, and the wines, which perhaps lean a bit more classical than Alain’s, are showing both personality and place in a major way, with that Mediterranean romance that we all learned about from Alain; rooted fruit and tautly integrated tannins, lines of bright acid and a certain vividly lush, compact and sensual quality that can only come from grapes grown and vinified in this storied part of France. And while it may be difficult for the mega fans to drink a Casot des Mailloles label without nostalgia for the past, just imagine Jordi out in the vines now, salty sea-air blowing up the hillside, a basket ot freshly harvested Grenache by his side.

Blanc du Casot 2020
Grenache Blanc / Grenache Gris / Macabeu / Vermentino
$49

Blanc du Casot 2019
Grenache Blanc / Grenache Gris / Macabeu / Vermentino
$53

El Niño 2020
Syrah / Grenache Gris
$39

Vi Si Num 2019
Red / White / Grey Blend
$72

Obreptice 2021
Vermentino
$27

Medée 2021 (formerly Rosé de ZaZa)
Rosé of Syrah / Marsanne
$27