Gauby

History of Domaine Gauby

The story begins with the first Gérard Gauby, an international rugby player turned winemaker who owned three hectares of vines about twenty kilometers from Perpignan and decided to stop delivering his harvest and make wine himself. It was his grandson, also named Gérard, who brought the estate to its current scale. In the mid-1980s, he took over the family property, stopped sending grapes to the cooperative, and began aging and bottling his own wines. With the support of his wife, Ghislaine, he focused his work on the hillsides of Calce and quickly elevated the Gauby name to the forefront of Roussillon wines.

The decisive turning point came in 1996. One morning, Gérard Gauby found dozens of dead birds in a plot that had been treated the previous day. He abandoned chemical treatments overnight, converted the vineyard to organic farming, then adopted biodynamic principles from 2001. His son Lionel joined him in the early 2000s after a formative internship with Olivier Jullien at Mas Jullien, and gradually took the reins. Together, they shifted the house style toward gentler extraction, less pronounced oak aging, and purer, more ethereal, easier-drinking wines. Today, the estate is the driving force in the village of Calce, home to an impressive concentration of the region’s finest winemakers.

Terroirs and Vineyards of Domaine Gauby

The landscape of Calce is wild, arid, rugged, and hilly, with plots climbing to an altitude of 300 meters. Its geology is exceptionally complex: multiple deep vertical faults and layers into which roots plunge in search of water and minerals. The soils combine sedimentary limestone, clay-limestone marl, and iron-rich schist, sometimes closely intermingled within a single plot. This diversity explains the range of cuvées and the wines’ saline, taut signature, far removed from the sun-soaked profile one might expect in Roussillon.

Of the property’s 85 hectares, only 45 are planted with vines: the rest is deliberately left as garrigue, meadows, forests, hedgerows, and a variety of crops, with trees replanted within the vineyard to restore biodiversity. The principal red varieties are Grenache Noir, Carignan, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, with some plots reaching 120 years of age and a few pre-phylloxera vines. The whites are based on Macabeu, Grenache Blanc and Gris, Carignan Blanc, and a little Chardonnay, from vines 50 to 110 years old. Yields are deliberately very low, often between 15 and 25 hectoliters per hectare, cultivation is gentle, and all grapes are harvested by hand into crates.

Winemaking at Domaine Gauby

In the cellar, restraint guides the approach. The grapes arrive in small crates and are sorted on a table. The whites are pressed directly, settled at low temperature, then fermented using only indigenous yeasts. The reds are 100% destemmed and gently macerated for two to four weeks, without aggressive punch-downs, to preserve the finesse of the tannins and the vibrancy of the fruit. No enzymes, no chaptalization, no acidification: the estate rejects all winemaking adjustments.

Aging is lengthy but deliberately understated, taking place in large oak casks, demi-muids, barrels, and concrete vats, with the proportion of new oak gradually reduced over the years. The whites rest on fine lees with measured bâtonnage for seven to twelve months, while the top red cuvées age for up to twenty-four months. The wines are bottled without fining or filtration, with minimal sulfur additions. This stylistic shift, begun in the early 2000s, has taken the wines from a powerful, oaky profile to a taut, crystalline, and remarkably fresh expression.

The cuvées of Domaine Gauby

Les Calcinaires white: the ideal introduction to the estate’s wines, an IGP Côtes Catalanes blend of Macabeu, Grenache Blanc and Gris, Chardonnay, and a touch of Muscat. Aged mainly in vats to preserve the vibrancy of the fruit, it offers a floral, citrusy nose and a lively, saline, immediately appealing palate. A bright white to enjoy young with grilled fish or seafood.

Les Calcinaires rosé: made by the saignée method from the estate’s red grape varieties, it favors freshness and tension over roundness. Pale in color, with aromas of red berries, citrus zest, and garrigue, and a dry, mineral finish. A food-friendly rosé, a world away from sweet southern rosés.

Les Calcinaires red: a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Carignan from vines 10 to 90 years old, grown on clay, limestone, schist, and rounded-pebble soils. Aged in concrete vats to preserve the purity of the fruit, it offers aromas of cherry, pepper, and wild herbs, with supple tannins and irresistible drinkability.

Vieilles Vignes white: one of the house’s great successes, made from Macabeu, Grenache Blanc and Gris, Carignan Blanc, and some Chardonnay, from vines 50 to 110 years old planted on marl and schist. Yields are limited to around 15 hectoliters per hectare, with seven to eight months of aging on fine lees in barrels and vats. A focused, dense, saline white with superb aging potential.

Vieilles Vignes red: the historic heart of the range, a blend of Carignan from very old vines, Grenache Noir, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, from vines 45 to 120 years old. Long maceration, followed by extended aging in barrels and large oak casks for nearly two years. Black fruit, licorice, garrigue, and spices are supported by a beautifully velvety tannic structure and a lingering finish.

Coume Gineste white: the estate’s flagship white cuvée, dubbed by some the Montrachet of Roussillon. It comes from 60- to 90-year-old Grenache Gris and Grenache Blanc vines planted at an altitude of 200 meters, where limestone meets schist. Golden in color, with a refined nose of exotic fruit and flowers and a crystalline palate of rare density and finesse. An exceptional white built to age.

Coume Gineste red: the red counterpart to the great white, built mainly around old Carignan vines supplemented by Grenache Noir, on the same limestone-and-schist terroir. Deep but never heavy, it combines fresh black fruit, gentle spices, and chalky minerality with a remarkably elegant tannic structure.

Muntada: the estate’s flagship cuvée, from Côtes du Roussillon Villages, made from two or three plots of old Grenache and Carignan vines supplemented by a little Syrah and Mourvèdre, on limestone marl. Vines 30 to 95 years old, tiny yields, and aging in large-format vessels rather than barrels. Intensity, depth, freshness, and length: one of the most sought-after wines of the Mediterranean region.

La Foun: a small-production cuvée whose name means “the fountain” in Catalan, made predominantly from Carignan, including some pre-phylloxera vines. A taut, savory red with aromas of fresh red fruit, rosemary, and warm stone that demonstrates the long-overlooked potential of this grape variety.

La Roque: a tiny-production cuvée from century-old Grenache Noir vines planted on the hill opposite the winery, aged for eighteen months in barrels, with around a thousand bottles produced. Translucent in color, with a nose of sour cherry, cherry, and poppy touched by a hint of anise, and a fluid, subtle, delicate palate. An absolute rarity.

La Jasse: a distinctive red built mainly around Mourvèdre, a grape variety of Catalan origin, with a little Carignan. Wilder and spicier than the other cuvées, it offers black fruit, leather, and garrigue, with a firm structure that needs a few years in the cellar to soften.