Amistat

Amistat

The Amistat estate was born from the meeting of two winemakers, Julien Ditté and Olivier Cazenave, brought together by friendship and a shared passion for the historic grape varieties of Roussillon, particularly Grenache. Their project began around 2010–2011, with the aim of producing authentic wines, far removed from standardized tastes, while highlighting a Mediterranean vineyard landscape that is sometimes threatened by grubbing-up due to its lack of profitability. Their production remains deliberately small-scale, allowing them to preserve an artisanal and deeply hands-on approach to winemaking. 

The estate is located in Roussillon, south of Perpignan, in the Aspres area, close to the Spanish border. The vines, including Grenache, Macabeu and Carignan, grow on brown schist soils mixed with clay, quartz and pebbles, characteristic of this Catalan landscape. The vineyard covers around 3.5 hectares, allowing for entirely manual work and close attention to each individual plot. The vines are farmed without chemical herbicides, with natural ground cover and a focus on maintaining a balance between vigour and deep rooting.

Today, Amistat produces a range of natural wines, made through spontaneous fermentation using indigenous yeasts, without filtration and with very little added sulphur. The cuvées – red, white and skin-contact wines – showcase the estate’s Mediterranean grape varieties, particularly Grenache in its various expressions as well as Macabeu. The wines are aged and bottled with as little intervention as possible, in order to preserve the expression of the vintage, the terroir and the fruit, with the aim of offering wines that are vibrant, honest and deeply rooted in their origin.