Maison ALBERA
Roussilon - France
Fabrice and Alexandre RIEU, winemakers at Maison Albera, are passionate spokespersons in the winemaking history of Roussillon. Their family epic dates back to the 19th century, when their ancestors, from Spanish Catalonia, came to settle in Roussillon, the northern and French part of Catalonia.
In 2001, after gaining professional experience in Barcelona and Paris, Fabrice and Alexandre chose to return to Roussillon to take up the torch of their family's wine-growing business. Together, they developed a passion for Roussillon's native grape varieties that draw their roots in the very best terroirs. In 2008, concerned about climate change and guided by the desire to produce fresher wines, they embarked upon a quest for high-altitude terroirs...
Their wines, mainly varietal, are shaped in the image of their exceptional terroir. They transmit to the amateur an immediate pleasure, thanks to their minerality and incredible freshness, indisputable witnesses of their terroir perched at an altitude of more than 500 meters.
Due to the very elevated thermal amplitude between day and night, reaching up to nearly twenty degrees in summer, the sugar concentration develops infinitely less quickly than on the plains: for every 100 metres of altitude, phenolic maturity si delayed by 5 or 6 days.
Thus, on their plateau more than 500 metres above sea level, the harvest often only begins when it has already ended in the plains. Benefiting from cooler temperatures, their grapes undergo a truly natural "cooldown" that preserves their aromas (and organoleptic properties) to their best. Finally, at high altitudes, the more regular and generous rainfall allows their vineyards to protect themselves from water stress.
