Whole cluster Carignan is macerated for four days after a foot press. This yields a wine that showcases lots of finesse, purity of fruit, florality, and spice almost in the style of Syrah according to Marius. One of his best wines of 2023 in his opinion! 

Sense Pressa

Marius Long comes to wine through food. Raised in Paris in a family of restaurateurs with roots in Auvergne, he grew up in dining rooms and kitchens, absorbing an early sense of how wine fits into everyday life at the table. That curiosity led him to Sancerre to study winemaking, followed by formative work across a wide range of regions—Sancerre and Burgundy, the Barossa Valley, and Latour-de-France—before he eventually found his place in the Hautes Corbières.

He settled in Padern, a small village tucked into the limestone foothills of the Pyrenees, first working with Domaine de Mena and Domaine Mazière before launching his own project, Sense Pressa, in 2020. The setting is rugged and dramatic, and Marius farms just four hectares of Grenache, Carignan, Syrah, and Cinsault around the picturesque village of Cucugnan, nestled between the foothills of the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea, producing roughly 8,000 bottles a year from the basement of his home.

The approach in both vineyard and cellar is uncompromisingly hands-off. Farming is attentive and manual, and in the cellar everything happens without shortcuts: grapes are pressed by hand in a basket press, fermentations are spontaneous, there is no temperature control, and nothing is added at any stage. Wines are fermented, aged, and bottled as they are, with a focus on clarity rather than force.

Despite the southern setting, the wines lean away from excess. They show delicacy, lift, and a quiet elegance, often marked by floral tones and lift that can feel more reminiscent of cooler climates than the stereotypes of the region.