After 15 years making wines in Gaillac, Virginie turned a page, packed the car, and headed 100 miles south to the village of Calce in the Roussillon. You’ve probably heard of the village but more likely you’ve heard of Virginie’s winemaking neighbors – Gauby? Pithon? Lubbe? Padié? The list goes on, and it’s not without good reason why so many have chosen this area to ply their trade.

This picturesque village, which you could call one of the HQs of natural winemaking in the area, is perched at 750ft in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains to the south and less than 10 miles as the crow flies from the Mediterranean sea to the east. It’s hilly and the topsoils can be poor, often rocky, with seams of  limestone and schist just below the surface. The powerful tramontane wind blows from the north west along the Pyrenees towards the sea, bringing with it cooler temperatures and airing the vines.

It was in 2019 that Virginie started La Spanda, a reference from Sanskrit both to her passion for yoga and to her spiritual approach to life and winemaking, with four hectares of vines once belonging to Olivier Pithon. The vines, consisting of Muscat and Macabeu for the whites and Carignan, Grenache Noir and Lledoner Pelut for the reds, are at present waiting for organic certification and in the meantime, Virginie also uses biodynamic methods.