Hello I'm José, portuguese, and my wife Paulina, polish, and together we created La Cave des Nomades, a micro biodynamic wine domaine with 3ha of vineyards in the Roussillon region, more precisely in the village of Banyuls-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France) with the mountains above, the sea by our side and the vineyards all around - the perfect microclime and one true atmosphere to produce natural wines.

In Banyuls-sur-mer, for nearly two centuries, the smuggling of goods to and from Spain was a major activity. Depending on the needs of the time, salt, tobacco, silver, sugar, rice, textiles, and leather were smuggled through this city, almost always with impunity. Otherwise the inhabitants lived mainly from fishing and viticulture. Nowadays, tourism stemming from the wine industry plays a significant economic role in the region notably for delicious and rare red dessert wines (Vin doux naturelle AOC Banyuls). Under the Collioure appellation and IGP Côte Vermeille, the region is also a center of quality dry reds, rosés and whites, with a number of producers of natural wines.

Banyuls region is located along the Mediterranean coast in the Roussillon district, extending from the coast up to the foothills of the Pyrenees which separates the area from the Spanish wine region of Catalonia across the border. Both the mountains and the sea have strong influences on the region's distinctly Mediterranean climate. During the summer growing season, temperatures are very warm and dry with the potential for drought. In the evening, cool winds from the mountains descend over the vineyards and this can help moderate temperatures for the vines.

Vineyard soils in the area range from alluvial soils near the sea and rivers to more gravel, limestone and schist based soils closer to the foothills of the Pyrenees. The soil types will have an impact on the resulting style of wine with the more schist-based soils on the higher slopes of the foothills produced more intense, full bodied wines while the more alluvial soils closer to the sea will produce lighter styles of wine.

At La Cave des Nomades we belive in natural wines without manipulation, no SO2 adding, only indigenous yeasts, no filtration, no clarification, the most natural juice fermentation to result into complexes aromas, with lots of ripe fruits balanced in harmonious acidity creating some particular character in our natural wines. No pesticides. no chemicals in the vineyards. Minimum powder sulfur to control diseases, no copper, only biodynamic preparations, orgonites & cosmo-experiments. We take the herbs from the vineyards by hand. No mechanization is possible. Everything is done by hand and with traditional catalan tool "xadic". The work of the soil is made with animal power (horse or mule) and by us with xadic. Until now La Cave des Nomades do not produce wines in AOC apellations, maybe of the next years we will apply for Banyuls AOC.

This project started in 2014. Me and my wife, we met here in 2011 and we made a lot of winemakers friends. After a few years of travelling around - we are musicians - we start to play music in the moments of "vendange" and "foulage" for different bio and natural winemakers from Banyuls. The passion of the wine grown within us, and we start to ask ourselves if we could start to make the alchemy of the wine more present in our lifes. We decided in 2013 to get 1.30ha of abandoned vineyards and we launch our project in 2014. Now we have 3ha and our goal is to arrive 6ha maximum. This year we expect to produce: 1 cuvée dry red wine 100% Grenache N; 1 cuvée dry red wine Carignan, Mourvredre and Grenache N; 1 cuvée dry white wine Grenache Gris et Blanc; 1 cuvée AOC Banyuls VDN 100% Grenach N.

Our cellar is our heart and is growing within another project, among with more 7 winemakers bio & nature, called "Les 9 Caves". In this project we see many advantages as we perform together one convivial viticulture - we share the work and we share knowledges. This project includes 9 vinification cellars (all in bio and nature), 1 caveau bistro/wine shop, 3 apartments to rent for tourists, conference rooms, cultural events and much more. The commercial side of this project is very attractive in lots of senses. It deserves a good visit to know and understand where we can arrive and what we can achieve.

The yield of the vineyards in the region is very low due to the hard conditions of the soils, mountain, terraces, wind and sea. We only produced 6hl/ha in 2014! We didn't had the capacity to produce more in the cellar.

As we had a very high demand of bottles this year we couldn't get all of our clients satisfied. A lot of importers came and we simply could sell them our wine because we had such a little production and they were demanding all the bottles!! So, we decided to sell only around France, mainly in Paris and Banyuls in little quantities, with export to Belgium. So, we must, and we have capacity to grow next year, to produce 4000 bottles minimum.

To manifiest that we need a hand of our friends! Blessings to all!

La Cave des Nomades is from all the people who loves to travel and taste good wine. The nomads brought the wine plants from other worlds, they travel, they transform it, they learned, they interacted...and they are still alive. Blessings to them!

Our adventure with wine is making is very recent in this existance but we are full on with different experiences!

We believe that life is full of surprises. We believe on nature and on the ancient beliefs of synchronism, time and space, gods and spirits, magics and powers. Our ideas are our hands trapped in the rings of the reason that communicates with the freedom of thought.

Things always happens for a reason and there is always a lesson to be learned.

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This year we need a proper investment in our winery material to produce 40hl of natural wine in 4 different cuvées.

We need to manifest 1 oak foudre of 10hl, 3 inox tanks of 10hl, 2 inox tanks of 5.5hl & 2 inox tanks of 3.5hl and 10 french oak barrils of 2hl. We are looking for partners, private investors and wine friends to join us in this adventure!

We are searching for different kinds of partnerships and investors to help us to achieve our goal.