Nicolas Carmarans

Nicolas Carmarans took his first steps into the world of natural wine with his restaurant Café de la Nouvelle Mairie in Paris, starting in 1994. It became one of the pioneering flag bearers of natural wine in the capital, but as the years passed, more and more Nicolas felt the call of the vine... And so in 2003 he set off on a new adventure in the his native Aveyron region. His four hectares of grapevines, planted with Fer Servadou and Négret de Banhars, are worked with a tiny caterpillar tractor or by winch. The steep slopes of the Aubrac foothills overlooking La Selves are unforgiving... and yet his unique local grape varieties couldn’t be more generous, to say nothing of his Chenin, Gamay, and Pinot Noir. This neo-vigneron finally hung up his apron in 2007, to dedicate himself fulltime to vinification. The estate has cultivated its grapes organically since the beginning, which are then treaded by foot, fermented using carbonic maceration and indigenous yeasts, and bottled with very little added sulphur... Pure wines!