DOMAINE PAUL MAS

The Mas family have been involved in winegrowing in the Languedoc region since 1892. In 2000, Jean-Claude Mas created Les Domaines Paul Mas, named after his father; in recent years it has grown to become one of the main estates in southern France, covering 478 hectares offering a diversity of terroirs.

Jean-Claude’s focus on quality in the vineyards and use of modern methods is delivering a range of refined, terroir-driven wines that are remarkably price-friendly. Often described as belonging to the new wave of French winemakers, his contemporary approach to French winemaking is instrumental in restoring the reputation of Languedoc, where wine production goes back more than 2,000 years.

Jean-Claude Mas was born in a winemaking environment in the Languedoc, in Pézenas. At the age of 3, during the harvest, he escaped from his mother and ran 2.5 km to meet his grandfather in the cellar! This was a moment that he never forgot, when his interest and passion for wine were born! At school and later at university, he studied economics and advertising, and wine became a hobby. No matter where he lived, he was always involved in the wine: in the North of France, he created a wine club; then in England, he set up a small import company for organic wines; then in Miami he worked in the consulate to develop the import and distribution of French food & wine products. In his professional life, he devoted the first 3 years of his career to his second passion : car and moto races, but very soon, he came back to his first love - the wine. At the beginning of the 1990s, he worked 4 years in Bordeaux. This experience in the wine world was determining, as much as his encounter in 1992 with one of the most famous Italian winemakers, Giorgio Grai, who taught him the art of blending and how to create wines with style. This teaching process has in fact never stopped. In the middle of the 1990s, he did the first blendings of the family’s first bottled wines at Nicole Estate - the first wine was from vintage 1995. Jean-Claude Mas is often described as a pioneer from the New Languedoc, belonging to the new wave of French wines; one of those on a mission to give Languedoc its former glory back in a region where wine production goes back to more than 2000 years.