Collection: The Mazel

Gérald Oustric is a living legend of French winemaking. Many of today’s natural wine pioneers, including Andrea Calek, Jérôme Jouret, Sylvain Bock, and Anders Frederik Steen, openly acknowledge the debt they owe him for giving them the freedom to experiment and spread their wings.

Gérald took over Le Mazel from his father in Valvignières, South Ardèche, in 1982 and today runs the 22-hectare estate alongside his sister Jocelyne. The estate focuses on local red grape varieties (Syrah, Grenache, Portan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, and Merlot) while Viognier, Chardonnay, and Grenache Blanc add depth and nuance to the whites.

The soils are a mix of limestone, clay, and sandstone. Red vines are in average 50–65 years old, while the whites are 20–25 years old, remarkable for a region where many native Ardèche varieties, such as Portan and Chatus, have long been removed in favor of higher-yielding grapes and funneled into the cooperative system.

Le Mazel’s fresh, mineral-driven wines owe much to their location in the upper Ardèche Valley, where hilly terrain channels the Mistral (the strong northwesterly wind from southern France) cooling even the south-facing vineyards.

The estate has been organically certified (Ecocert) since 2002, though Gérald has farmed organically and biodynamically since taking over. Grapes are pruned and harvested entirely by hand, with no herbicides used.

In the cellar, whites are pressed directly, while reds undergo partial carbonic maceration in the Beaujolais style. After decades of barrique use, Gérald now ferments all wines in steel tanks. He was a regional pioneer of 0/0 winemaking — no sulfur, unfiltered, and unfined. Bottling is done by gravity, and to preserve freshness, some wines are bottled with a small amount of residual sugar, creating a light, sparkling sensation that highlights their vibrancy.