The domaine des Balmettes was started in 2003 with the purchase of 4 hectares of hillside vines on black marl soil in the Agly valley, outside the village of Cases-de-Pène, near Perpignan in the Pyrénées-Orientales (66) department of France, close to the Spanish border.
Now increased to 8 adjoining hectares, the estate is run organically by Lucien Salani, whose passion for his craft and experience gained in Burgundy led him to select plots with “Mediterranean” varieties such as red and white Grenache, as well as Grenache gris, Maccabeu and Muscat Petit Grain.
Work in the cellar is focussed on getting the best out of these particular varieties and of the exceptional terroir drenched in year-round sun and windswept by the dominant tramontane, resulting in exceptionally good wines for keeping.

Originally from the Lorraine region of northeast France, Lucien Salani is a winegrower through and through, and an extraordinary one at that.
He arrived in the Agly valley in the foothills of the eastern Pyrenees in 2000, after working in Burgundy on the Capitain-Gagnerot estate. He spent 3 years at the Domaine du Vieux Chêne and then with the help of 5 friends(*) he set up on his own in 2003 as an independent wine producer with 4 hectares of vines. .
Today his estate now covers nearly 8 hectares in a single grouping of vines and enjoys organic certification. Grapes are fermented by plot, variety by variety and the resulting wines have a distinct character, just like the winegrower.

(*) Patrice Capitain, Guy Delvaux, Ghislain Godfroy, Dominique Pilou and Marcel Sabatier

With his burgundy winemaking culture, Lucien is a fervent defender of mono-varietal wines. Giving expression to the terroir is, he believes, difficult with wines blended from different varieties (other than with mixed plantations). He is convinced that the full expression of the terroir is only possible with organically produced grapes. This “purist” philosophy is carried through to the entire winemaking process, with no chemical inputs allowed at all (only native yeasts, no enzyme addition, no acidification, etc.).