Wines of Auvergne and the Hérault from Mattia Carfagna

Mattia Carfagna Producer Profile

Quick Facts

Name of Estate	Mattia Carfagna
Region	Auvergne
Country	France
Proprietor	Mattia Carfagna
Size	4.5 hectares
Farming	Organic (Not Certified)
Soils	Clay, limestone, peperite, basalt, schist
Grapes grown	Gamay d'Auvergne, Viognier, Grenache, Muscat Petits Grains
Fun facts	Mattia was a professional cook and seriously throws down in the kitchen.

Mattia was a professional cook and seriously throws down in the kitchen.

Name of Estate	Mattia Carfagna
Region	Auvergne
Country	France
Proprietor	Mattia Carfagna
Size	4.5 hectares
Farming	Organic (Not Certified)
Soils	Clay, limestone, peperite, basalt, schist
Grapes grown	Gamay d'Auvergne, Viognier, Grenache, Muscat Petits Grains
Fun facts	Mattia was a professional cook and seriously throws down in the kitchen.

producer profile 07.03.2024

Mattia Carfagna Producer Profile

We first met Mattia Carfagna in 2011, when a small group of us were marooned on the island of <glossary term="Giglio" title="491">Giglio</glossary>. At the time, Mattia was working at the Altura winery with his father Francesco and cooking at their seasonal family restaurant Arcobaleno. To this day, I vividly remember the fresh anchovies he served us with the 2010, 2009 and 2008 Altura <glossary term="Ansonaco" title="106">Ansonaco</glossary>. We’d see him again in 2015 at our New York City October trade show, then a few years later in Paris, where he’d decamped to go cook professionally. By then, he'd left the kitchen to start importing specialty Italian foods. Over constant, lengthy road trips from Paris to Italy to re-up on goods, Mattia began making a habit of visiting his vignerons friends in the <glossary term="Auvergne" title="128">Auvergne</glossary>. Quickly falling in love with the region, he originally envisioned having a second home there. Then, in 2019, a chance opportunity came from his friends Catherine Dumora and Manuel Duveau of L’Egrapille: having recently separated, the couple were no longer using their communal <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> and asked Mattia if he wanted to rent it along with some adjacent land for 250 euros a month. That same year, Mattia made a tiny amount of wine in the <glossary term="Auvergne" title="128">Auvergne</glossary>. His sister Irene poured it for us at Altura’s table during the 2020 <glossary term="Dive Bouteille" title="395">Dive Bouteille</glossary>. Our interest was piqued. We’d meant to get in touch but got somewhat distracted by the pandemic and resulting lockdowns of March 2020: a time that upended and changed everyone’s life one way or the other. For Mattia, with no restaurants to sell to, his food business was done. Strapped for cash and needing to leave Paris, he and his girlfriend Chiara decamped to the <glossary term="Auvergne" title="128">Auvergne</glossary>, where for over a year they lived in Catherine and Manu’s <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> with no electricity, using gas burners to cook and showering without hot water. During that time, Mattia started tending the tiny <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots</glossary> of land he was renting as well as asking local owners if he could rent their abandoned <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary>. Some said no, others yes. That year, Carfagna managed to start working nine tiny <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> owned by seven separate owners, all very old vines and previously abandoned. Totaling little more than a single <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectare</glossary> combined, most of these micro-<glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots </glossary>are within a <glossary term="Cru" title="1152">cru</glossary> of the <glossary term="Auvergne" title="128">Auvergne</glossary> <glossary term="AOC" title="108">AOP</glossary> called Châteaugay. There is no <glossary term="Basalt" title="145">basalt</glossary> here, though volcanic chunks of <glossary term="Peperite" title="1485">peperite</glossary> mark the <glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> heavy <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroir</glossary>. One <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> within Châteaugay happens to be purely <glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary>, and a final <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> in a nearby village grows on <glossary term="Basalt" title="145">basalt</glossary> soils (it's also completly surrounded by the suburban housing of <glossary term="Clermont-Ferrand" title="302">Clermont-Ferrand</glossary>, with the city visible from the vineyard).  An inestimable amount of work was and continues to be needed to get the land back into shape; during a January 2023 visit, we saw one <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> so completely overrun by thorns and shrubbery you had to squint to see the vines. For Mattia, this is a labor of love, passion and patience - honestly, it has to be seen to be believed.  From these <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots</glossary>, a <glossary term="Gamay d'Auvergne" title="1308">Gamay d’Auvergne</glossary> called “Le Serail" is produced. With vines averaging 80 to 100 years old and <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> at a measly 10-14<glossary term="hl/ha" title="528">hl/ha</glossary>, production is unsurprisingly very low. Knowing he could not survive producing just one wine, in 2020 Mattia reached out to <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vigneron</glossary> friends across France for grapes to make supplemental <glossary term="Cuvée" title="363">cuvées</glossary>. This landed him in the <glossary term="Hérault" title="525">Hérault</glossary>, where Jeff Coutelou helped him buy fruit. In 2022, chance struck again: through Coutelou, Mattia was able to rent 3.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> in the <glossary term="Languedoc" title="579">Languedoc </glossary>on the hills of <glossary term="Faugères" title="1387">Faugères</glossary>. A 3+ hour drive from Châteaugay, Coutelou’s team tends the vines year-round, with Mattia present for crucial moments like <glossary term="Pruning" title="834">pruning</glossary> and <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary>. From the <glossary term="Languedoc" title="579">Languedoc</glossary>, he mostly farms <glossary term="Viognier" title="1111">Viognier</glossary> and a smaller amount of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache Noir </glossary>and <glossary term="Muscat Petits Grains" title="699">Muscat Petits Grains</glossary>. The grapes are trucked back and <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinified</glossary> in the <glossary term="Auvergne" title="128">Auvergne</glossary>, with an “Italian style” <glossary term="Maceration" title="610">macerated</glossary> white wine and a <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary>/<glossary term="Viognier" title="1111">Viognier</glossary> <glossary term="Blend" title="168">blend</glossary> produced at the time of this writing. Mattia’s means in the <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> are limited to <glossary term="Fiberglass" title="445">fiberglass</glossary> and an an old <glossary term="Concrete" title="325">concrete</glossary> <glossary term="Vat/Tank" title="1140">tank</glossary> for the time being, though he hopes to grow and evolve the types of <glossary term="Vessel" title="1160">vessels</glossary> and <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinification</glossary> techniques over time. Each year the wines are made by instinct over formula, with the names and the labels often changing to reflect the unique aspect of the <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary>. For more information and pictures of those crazy aformentioned vines, please read our visit recap below (COMING SOON).

producer profile 07.03.2024

Mattia Carfagna Producer Profile

Mattia Carfagna’s wines

Mattia Carfagna

Vin de France Blanc "Blandambà"

Mattia Carfagna

Vin de France Rouge "Le Matos"

Mattia Carfagna

Vin de France Rouge "Le Sérail"