Coume del Mas: Grenache, schist and the sea
There are vineyards you visit. And then there are those you have to climb.
On the Côte Vermeille, between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean, the vines cling to schist terraces that plunge toward the sea. It is here that Coume del Mas has established itself, in barely a generation, as one of the benchmarks of Collioure and Banyuls.
At Vinodelice, we have chosen five cuvées from the estate, including a Banyuls, a naturally sweet wine that has made the appellation famous for centuries.
Where is Coume del Mas located?
The estate is located about thirty kilometers from Perpignan, on the Côte Vermeille, between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Port-Vendres, and its vineyards are primarily planted on schist. The winery, located in Cosprons, overlooks the bay of Paulilles.
The landscape is spectacular: tiny plots, dry-stone walls, and slopes so steep that everything is done by hand. The tramontane wind sweeps across the hillsides, the sea moderates the heat, and the poor, dark schist naturally limits yields.
This combination produces concentrated wines of astonishing freshness and salinity for such a sunny region.
A recent history in an ancient land
The story of Coume del Mas began in the early 2000s. An agricultural engineer, Philippe Gard first worked for the agricultural chambers of Auxerre and then Bordeaux before launching his own label in 2001. He runs the estate with his wife Nathalie.
This terroir won him over, and Grenache quickly became the heart of his work. The guides followed suit: today, the estate is regularly cited as one of the Roussillon’s reliable choices.
The estate’s philosophy
Here, Grenache’s natural power is never an end in itself. The goal is to preserve the fruit and tension of the grapes all the way to the bottle.
The vines are planted on numerous small terraced plots, some facing the sea, others further inland; many are very old and yield very little. For the Banyuls, the estate adds less alcohol during the mutage than many other producers in order to preserve freshness. It is farmed sustainably and holds HVE certification.
Collioure and Banyuls: two appellations, one terroir
Two appellations coexist on these same hillsides.
Collioure: the Côte Vermeille’s dry wines
Red, white, and rosé dry wines, the Collioure wines express schist and sunshine without heaviness. Grenache, Mourvèdre, Carignan, and Syrah make up the bulk of the reds, producing wines that are both deep and saline.
Banyuls: the Mediterranean’s great naturally sweet wine
Banyuls is a naturally sweet wine: fermentation is stopped by adding neutral alcohol, which preserves some of the grape’s sugars. Depending on how it is aged, it can retain vibrant fruit (in the rimage style, when bottled young) or develop notes of dried fruit, cocoa, and coffee over the years (in the traditional, oxidative style).
Why discover Coume del Mas today?
Because the Côte Vermeille is one of France’s most distinctive vineyards, and one of the most demanding to work.
Coume del Mas offers a reading that is both precise and generous: Collioure wines that combine sunshine and freshness, and Banyuls that remind us that naturally sweet wines are among the greatest wines for pairing with fine food.
