La Mariota Le Vol de Etourneaux

La Mariota make Roussillon wine that feels sun-soaked, slightly wild and somehow still incredibly precise underneath it all.

The project was founded by Cecilia Diaz and Guillermo Campos after years working in restaurants and wine before eventually settling in Vingrau in the Roussillon hills. They started tiny, just 1.7 hectares at first, before gradually expanding across limestone and schist vineyards planted with old local varieties like Macabeu, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Carignan.

The wines themselves sit firmly in low-intervention territory but avoid the whole “look how funky we are” trap loads of natural wine falls into. Whites especially have become a bit cult-like among wine nerds. Salty, textured, oxidative in places, full of herbs, citrus peel and Mediterranean energy without losing freshness.

The reds stay bright and savoury too. Less heavy southern French blockbuster, more lifted fruit, spice and minerality. Everything feels very tied to the landscape around it.

There’s also something refreshingly human about the whole project. Small cellar under the family house, manual harvests, indigenous yeasts and wines that clearly come from people more interested in farming and flavour than polishing everything into shiny perfection.

Roussillon has become one of the most exciting corners of French wine recently, and La Mariota are absolutely part of the reason why.