Léah Anglès

Young winemaker.  Rising star.  Chemistry grad.  Internships in Hawkes Bay and Bordeaux.  5-year apprenticeship with Philippe Gard at Coume del Mas.  This is the basic resumé.  And it’s a cracker.  But it just touches the surface.  Léah is steeped in ancient culture.

First her family – Malagasy – that exotic spice island, with traditions and rituals that seep into her ethos and presentation.  And Catalan, her chosen home.  With its stern independence and love of food, family.

Both cultures have deep agri tradition – and what a scattering of dramatic plots she has built.  Rugged, steep terrain, unmechanizable.  That sought-after schist and slate tumbling down into the refreshing Med. She uses organic treatments on the soil: copper, sulphur, essential oils, manure.

Everything is farmed by hand. Always with her dog, Wanda. 

After the grapes are hand harvested – old vine Grenache Noir, Syrah, Carignan – the cellar relaxes with her precision.  No additives, wild yeasts, rigorous hygiene, analytical monitoring for clean fermentations.  Vinification in stainless steel, fibre vats or old barrels.  

She has four wines: DIVAY translates to wine in Mangalay and honours her grandma.  Opa is a tribute to her Grandfather.  L'Éléphant Blanc (the albino) was the name of her grandparents' decoration & jewelry shop.  And Pilgrim pinpoints the vineyard’s location on St James Way, the ancients’ path to Santiago de Compostela.  Each wine celebrating family and culture.

Don’t let this thoughtfulness get too earnest.  The wines are a celebration of food too.  She seeks to ‘preserve the identity of the region with her modern flair.’  We have the power and fruit intensity typical of the region lifted by a freshness and salinity of her contemporary winemaking approach.

At this year's Sud de France, sitting alongside 300+ wines from 30 top importers, her wines were picked out and posted by a host of journalists and wine writers.  The star of the show.

She is wine wise beyond her years.