This is something special. It’s a sweet white wine, made from the wonderful Grenache Gris grape variety, and the fermentation has been stopped part way through by the addition of alcohol. The result is quite delicious, a bit like a white Port, but fruitier.

The Domaine
Mas Amiel is a large property in the heart of the Agly valley, in France’s Roussillon region. This is Cathar country: it’s beautiful but rugged—a hot, rather hostile environment with rocky, stony soils, frequent windy weather, and 260 days’ sunshine a year.
Back in 1816, a bishop used one of his plots of land as a bet in a game of cards. He lost it to a fellow player by the name of Raymond Amiel, and this is how Mas Amiel was born. At the time, this large plot only had 10 hectares of vines on it; it has grown substantially since then.
There are now 150 hectares of vineyards on this large 226 hectare estate. But yields here are tiny, ranging from 10–22 hectares each hectare, and some of the vines almost a century old. They struggle, but the grapes they produce in small quantities are intense and concentrated, with the potential to make superb wines.
The heart of the Mas Amiel range is formed by the traditional sweet fortified wines that are unique to this region. Maury is made by allowing fermentation to start, but then stopping it by adding alcohol, which kills the yeasts, and leaves lots of sugar in the wine—this is similar to the way Port is produced. Then comes the stage unique to Maury: the wine is placed into glass demi-johns and left outside for a year. This causes an intentional oxidation, and changes the wine’s colour, making it lighter. It then goes into large oak, where it can stay for a short while, or many years. The result is a complex sweet wine of real intensity.
The wines of Mas Amiel are highly regarded by sommeliers in some of France’s top restaurants, and so we are thrilled to be able to sell them in Ireland. This is one of France’s great wine domaines, with a unique story to tell.

Food Pairing
You could sip this ice cold, on its own – it would be a desert in itself. Or you could serve it at the beginning of the meal with foie gras. The most conventional match, though, is with fruit-based desserts.