Paul and Isla Gordon, who had been making wine the world over for more than a decade, started Domaine la Sarabande in 2009. They were drawn to the region by the schist soils and the old vines, of the classic Mediterranean varieties, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsaut and Carignan. As Paul puts it 'we believe these old vines deserve respect'. When they first came to Europe they went to look for a vineyard in Priorat, which has similar vines also on schist, but were put off by the land prices, which would have meant a minimum 20€ price tag on the wine. The vineyard is farmed organically, and the wines are hand-harvested, naturally fermented, and bottled unfined and unfiltered, so as to best express the soils and climate of the vineyard while being technically correct and free of faults - which is perhaps where training in some of the new world wineries gives the Gordons a lead over some of the indigenous growers. We were delighted by the combination of power and delicacy, of complexity along with a clean purity, that the 2010 wines (from only their second harvest) displayed at our introductory tasting.