Wines of Terres d’Imaginaire are a dichotomy of precise, scientific processes and a deep respect for the intangible, almost mystical, components of our earth. Mathilde’s pursuit of synergy in the vineyard and the cellar demonstrates the focus, zeal, and dedication required to be a low-intervention winemaker.

Terres d'Imaginaire

Terres d’Imaginaire adventure began in April 2022 with 2.7 ha of Chenin in Rochefort-sur-Loire. Spearheading the project is Mathilde Magne, an agronomist and oenologist. Mathilde has developed her style and understanding of winemaking, working for ten years at various famed estates (such as Figeac in Bordeaux). She spent three years with Sylvain Pataille, the master of low-intervention winemaking. When it was time to go out on her own, Mathilde was joined by her husband, Nicolas, an engineer who helped her daily while still working a full-time job.

The wines that inspire Mathilde come from the confluence of place and vigneron. She wanted to highlight this idea through the name of Domaine, “Terres d’Imaginaire.” On one side, the earth (terre) is the base from which the raw material is produced. On the other, the imagination to leave room for creativity, freedom, and the desire to experiment. Recently, Mathilde expanded her scope with 6 ha of additional vines, still in Rochefort with a beautiful diversity of rock nature (shales and/or sandstone of different colors, some large round rocks), exposures, soil texture (silts sandy, clayey sand, clay) and grape varieties (Chenin, Pineau d'Aunis, Sauvignon, Grolleau Gris, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc).

Regarding winemaking, Mathilde focuses on making terroir-driven wines that express the nature of the soils. Precise work in the vineyard is therefore crucial to obtaining grapes whose balance will require the minimum of intervention in the cellar. Fermentations are carried out with native yeasts; the wines only receive sulfites if necessary.

With the debut vintage only in 2021, Domaine Valma already showcases the clarity of vision - Stephane and Valentine Mathieu sought a plot in Beaujolais that was nontraditional and found it in Les Labourons: old-vine, North-facing, high-altitude. The resulting wines are as fresh as they are full of flavor, a swift and brilliant beginning for a young wine family.

Domaine Valma

The Mathieu family settled in Beaujolais after falling for wine during their more traditional careers and sought long and hard for what they deemed the perfect parcel of land. Without any outside help, they found it in Les Labourons in Fleurie, a 5.5 hectare plot planted in 1950 at essentially the highest altitude in Beaujolais.

Owing to help from peers (a stage at Chartogne-Taillet) and legends (Jacques Néauport, master of Beaujolais tradition, namely carbonic maceration), the Mathieus churned out an ultra-fine debut vintage in 2021, the wines both deep in flavor but with the brightness of a cool, high-altitude Gamay vineyard.

Two versions of their Beaujolais are produced, both entirely whole-cluster with semi-carbonic maceration. Prelude is fermented in concrete tanks; Face B ferments in used barrels which will provide a slightly more developed mouthfeel.

Goyo Garcia Viadero is not your “classic” Ribeira del Duero producer. While the rest of his peers embraced the modern, over-oaked, over-extracted style, Goyo chose to deviate from the trend while simultaneously drawing inspiration from his ancestors. His wines show purity and focus and are the epitome of the New Spain movement, redefining what Spanish viticulture is and could be.

Goyo Garcia Viadero

Goyo Garcia Viadero’s roots in Ribera Del Duero run very deep: he has worked in the area since before the establishment of the D.O., and his family has worked in viticulture for hundreds of years. While grape growing and winemaking in the region is exceedingly ancient (Goyo’s cellar dates to the Roman era), the area's modern history began with the founding of the Ribera del Duero D.O. by 12 wineries in 1982. In the past 40 years, this number has grown massively, and the region’s reputation for extracted, oak-influenced wines made primarily from Tempranillo has been solidified by the emergence of nearly 300 bodegas, including the producers of some of the most expensive Spanish wines.

Goyo’s approach makes him the region’s “black sheep,” as he has rejected additives, new oak, and intense extraction, characteristic of the region’s wines. Instead, greatly inspired by natural winemakers like Pierre Overnoy from the Jura, Goyo began farming without chemicals and making wines in a style more like his grandparents than his neighbors. Beginning with three parcels of old vines in 2003, he has charted his course in the increasingly industrial and commercial landscape of Ribera del Duero, embracing centenarian vineyards and traditional winemaking methods in equal measure

The ancient 4th-century lagar and cellar that houses Goyo’s barreled wines are essential to his winemaking. Dug out of limestone bedrock below the town of Gumiel del Mercado, the labyrinthine cellar is vast and deep and stays very cool year-round. This environment creates the ideal conditions for long, stable fermentations and extended barrel-aging that characterize Goyo’s winemaking. He partially attributes the stability of his wines to this unique cellar.

From those few hectares of initial vineyards in 2003, Goyo and his wife, Diana Semova Georgieva, now manage the organic farming of roughly 40 hectares of vines in Ribera del Duero, making their wines from approximately 10 of those hectares. These selected plots of old vines, mainly around the town of Roa, are planted to Tempranillo, Graciano, Albillo, and Malvasia; most vineyards, especially the oldest plots, are co-planted to red and white varieties. The vines sit on various soils, ranging from clay to limestone to alluvial sands. Perhaps what unites the plots is their impressive elevation: Finca Quemados and Finca El Peruco are over 900 meters above sea level (making them some of the highest altitude vineyards in the appellation), but even the ‘lower’ vineyards are a towering 800 meters or higher. On the sunbaked plateau of Ribera del Duero, these high altitudes lend the wines a fascinating tension between phenolic concentration and bright acidity.

Three parcels of old vines, Finca Valdeolmos, Finca El Peruco, and Finca Viñas de Arcilla, are the core of Goyo’s work. Goyo produces three single vineyard wines and his annual GGV reserve from these centenarian vineyards. The three fincas are relics of Ribera del Duero's pre-commercial past, and Goyo's wines are unique expressions of the area’s ancient terruño (terroir). White wines with skin contact made from the local Albillo and Malvasia varieties are a newer addition to Goyo’s project, as is a Clarete made in the region's traditional, short maceration style. These may seem like innovative departures from the orthodoxy of Ribera del Duero (the D.O. did not allow white wines until 2019). Still, Goyo sees these wines as revivals of old styles that predate contemporary industrial agriculture and winemaking.

Finally, Goyo makes wine in Cantabria, where his mother comes from, in the mountainous Liébana Valley. Here, there are little-known plots of old vine Mencía and Palomino planted on pure slate, and Goyo works with 2Ha of vines in the region to make a red wine and skin-contact white wine in the same fashion as his Duero wines.

Goyo’s approach in the cellar is delicate. All grapes are entirely destemmed by hand, pressed gently, and fermentations are slow in a cold, ancient cellar. For the wines that age in barrel, Goyo employs exclusively very old, finely-grained barriques from Bordeaux. Most wines are bottle-aged for at least a year before release, and sulfur and other additives are never used. Goyo’s careful process produces wines of striking sincerity and elegance that communicate a strong sense of place and simultaneously fit any definition of “low-intervention” wine.