It’s not for nothing that French newspaper Libération once referred to Andrea Calek as the punk star of the natural wine world.  But beneath the rebellious image, and amidst the fleet of vintage Citroën CX, he and partner Stephana Nicolescu make wines of incredible senitivity and originality.  Tending five and a half hectares of primarily old vines in a beautiful and sun-drenched corner of the Ardèche, their work reveals a unique and capricious terroir in enchanting, even poetic, ways.

As a kid growing up in Bohemia, Andrea found out he could make wine by adding sugar to his grandmother’s redcurrant juice and letting it ferment.  Winding up in southern France, fleeing military service and following love, he studied winemaking in Lyon and apprenticed with natural wine great Dominique Hauvette in Provence.  In 2007, he began producing his own wines on parcels acquired from another mentor and fabulous winemaker, Gérald Oustric of nearby Domaine Le Mazel.  Joined by Stephana in 2016, the two practice certified organic agriculture, intervening as little as possible in the vinification process, and refraining from adding sulphites from start to finish, preferring to let the grapes and climate dictate the outcome.   But the technicalities of winemaking are not why you should drink their wines Andrea and Stefana insist… drink them because you like them!  We couldn’t agree more.