DOMAINE PAUL MAS

Les Domaines Paul Mas is a group of four family estates covering 100 ha (250 acres) of vineyard on the hills bordering the Hérault Valley in Languedoc in the south of France. They are near the Mediterranean sea, close to the small town of Pézenas which inspired the famous playwright Molière, and not too far from such magnificent historic sites as the Canal du Midi (constructed in 1790 by Paul Riquet) and Valmagne Abbey.

"The story of our wines started in 1892: our family were originally farmers near Saint-Pargoire and Saint-Pons-de-Mauchiens in Hérault County in Languedoc. We subsequently expanded towards Montpellier (the regional capital not far from Sète) and towards Pézenas. In 1892 Auguste Mas farmed 22 acres of vineyard on the Mas de Bicq and in 1934 Raymond Mas, Auguste's son, extended the farm by buying the Montredon Estate with over 35 acres of vineyard".

Jean-Claude Mas

Jean-Claude Mas was born in a winemaking environment in the Languedoc, in Pézenas. At the age of 3, during the harvest, he escaped from his mother and ran 2.5 km to meet his grandfather in the cellar! This was a moment that he never forgot, when his interest and passion for wine were born! At school and later at university, he studied economics and advertising, and wine became a hobby. No matter where he lived, he was always involved in the wine: in the North of France, he created a wine club; then in England, he set up a small import company for organic wines; then in Miami he worked in the consulate to develop the import and distribution of French food & wine products. In his professional life, he devoted the first 3 years of his career to his second passion : car and moto races, but very soon, he came back to his first love - the wine. At the beginning of the 1990s, he worked 4 years in Bordeaux. This experience in the wine world was determining, as much as his encounter in 1992 with one of the most famous Italian winemakers, Giorgio Grai, who taught him the art of blending and how to create wines with style. This teaching process has in fact never stopped. In the middle of the 1990s, he did the first blendings of the family’s first bottled wines at Nicole Estate - the first wine was from vintage 1995. Jean-Claude Mas is often described as a pioneer from the New Languedoc, belonging to the new wave of French wines; one of those on a mission to give Languedoc its former glory back in a region where wine production goes back to more than 2000 years.