Wine Club 41 Winner! Mataburro Special

Last night at Highbury Library Wine Club we welcomed Laurent Roger of Mataburro to present 6 of his wines. Regular readers will know we have been huge fans for years now and have travelled to Perpignan to visit the vineyards back in 2024 so we were proud to welcome Laurent to North London for a special evening

We kicked off the night with his very rare collaboration with Domaine Moss in the Loire valley. Only 300 magnums were made of this Chenin Blanc / Macabeo blend so it was a real treat to share with the room. We only have two left in stock so if you want to experience for yourself, don't waste any time. 

Next up we tried two different vintages of the Otium cuvée. Made from a single parcel of Grenache Noir that has a few Macabeo, Carignan and Grenache Gris vines sprinkled in, this is generally a light and delicate red wine with fresh fruit and pronounced minerals. In 2023 there was a rare delivery of rain just before harvest which resulted in an even lighter and fresher style. The drought returned in 2024 which brought more concentration and a slightly deeper colour but still amazingly bright and light on its feet.

Mura Mura is maybe the wine that Laurent is best known for and the 2024 vintage might be our favourite iteration yet. This time out, the blend of Grenache, Merlot, Mouvedre and Muscat is lightly darker in colour than usual with flavours of watermelon, strawberry, citrus and some tropical notes from the Muscat. Superb. Laurent also shared the story behind the name of the cuvée explaining that Mura Mura means 'Slowly slowly' in Madagascan dialect (where is partner Melissa has family ancestry). The philosophy of Mataburro has always been to take time and do things mindfully. The crowd loved the wine and it took top spot in the final vote at the end of the night.

Just one vote behind in second place was Idoine 2024. Laurent explained that in the natural wine world, very few people champion the Merlot grape variety. But his mentor, the late Alain Castex told him years ago that it can be a beautiful grape if you take your time with it, experiment and have fun. So that's exactly what he does now with this cuvée and the results are outstanding. Light to medium body with delicate but concentrated fruit and a hint of something dark underneath it all. Such a great time to drink this wine.

We ended the night by sampling Totem 2023 which is a blend of Mouvedre / Grenache and represents Laurent's most structured wine. Now with a couple of years in bottle, this offers amazing texture, black fruit, dark minerals and balanced, refreshing acidity. The most food-ready wine of the night and its long finish seemed like the perfect way to go out.

See you at a Wine Club soon, I hope!

Happy drinking