Clandestine 2023

• Steamed fish or chilli-spiked prawns.
• Grilled sardines, anchovies or good bread and oil.

De Mena which roughly translates into "By Nature" in the Catalan Dialect was started by Sébastien Argélet in 2012 in the village of Paziols east of the Corbière mountain Ranges. Coming from a family of grape growers, the family decided to end their contracts with the co-operatives due to difference in vision. This allowed Sébastien to take over 30 hectares of organic vines planted by his grandfather, Augusti. Franck, Sébastien's elder brother later joined in 2017 and started making his wines that year making De Mena a truly multigenerational family business.

The vines of the De Mena estate have been converted to organic farming since 2010. They practise minimal intervention and use chemical treatments like copper only when absolutely necessary in the face of disease pressure. Fertilisers and amendments are also organic. In order to impact soil life as little as possible, they practise shallow plowing.

To the team at Racine Wines Co., we particularly enjoyed their wines which are fresh and easy to drink yet complex and balanced at the same time. We believe this is only possible due to Sébastien's vision of returning to the sources, to nature and to ancient traditions of winemaking.
The vinification practices are as natural as possible with the least intervention with the use of indigenous yeast. The juices are neither filtered nor fined. Sulphites are used only when absolutely necessary at bottling.