Jean-Claude Mas or rural luxury
With a slender sportsman's silhouette, he practices horse riding and car racing but above all travels up and down his estates, pampers them, visits them all over the world.
Assuring loud and clear: “ In Languedoc, we can grow from what we do, not from what we have. » What he had at the start? 15 hectares of vines inherited from his father who never forced him to take back his land. On the contrary. “At the time we encouraged elders to leave the farm to become “white collar”, to no longer work with their hands. Those who showed poor academic results were kept in the vineyard. So I followed the path desired by my father. I continued my studies. I got closer to the wine growing world in the 1990s through marketing, in Bordeaux, and only took over my father's estate at the age of 36, with the ambition to develop it but above all to to raise quality, to produce good wines. I am committed to promoting the work accomplished by four generations before mine. »
In 2000, with his successive acquisitions, Jean-Claude Mas created the Domaines Paul Mas, in order to give a single identity and notoriety to his productions spread over the Limoux, Terrasses du Larzac, Pézenas, Pays d'Oc and Grés de Montpellier appellations. , Corbières, Minervois, Roussillon, Costières de Nîmes. “ I have 45 different grape varieties and produce, under twelve appellations, what I call pleasure wines whose price varies from €5 to €10 but also dream wines, grand crus ranging from €15 to €50. These wines will be mature in 10 to 15 years or even 20, but a wine that is not good at the start will never become good. To ensure this production in addition to the exploitation of my 940 hectares, I have grapes by contract on 1,500 hectares. »
Over the years, by working his vines organically, Jean-Claude Mas has acquired real expertise in white wines. He is now recognized and appreciated as one of the great winemakers of this color, through Viognier and Chardonnay marketed under the Mas label. “I sell these vintages in 80 countries, including Japan, China but also Italy and France. There is a real market for great white wines. Mine are. »
SHARE THROUGH WINE TOURISM
Jean-Claude Mas' goal is to share his passions, to explain his approach through wine tourism, so that consumers understand the wine, its beauty, so that they also immerse themselves in the landscape, the land where the vines grow. “I want to be the ambassador of Languedoc, the promoter of a certain art of living that I expose in my book “Rural luxury”, published by Editions Glénat.
This is also why I opened, under the “Coté Mas” label, both La maison Nicole offering two exceptional accommodations with a view and a swimming pool, and developed, with a great chef, a gourmet restaurant in Montagnac , in the heart of Château Paul Mas, unrolling 150 hectares of vines, scrubland, olive trees and truffle oaks. There you can savor, through menus from €35 to €65, vegetables, fruits picked less than 24 hours ago, olive oil from the Domaine, truffles. We learn about our wines, food and wine pairings, but others too, without chauvinism. » It is also to get closer to the vines that Jean-Claude Mas organizes horseback riding on his land.
