MATTHIEU PICHENOT IS NOW OENOLOGIST AT BINIAGUAL

A continuous progress towards excellence for our wines and major sustainability in the cultivation – this is Finca Biniagual’s objective and the reason for bringing the acknowledged french oenologist Matthieu Pichenot into our team as the new oenologist and manager of the winery, the viticulture and the agriculture.

Matthieu Pichenot, qualified oenologist and engineer in viticulture and oenology, was a responsible winemaker for the winery Domaine Gayda in Languedoc (France) for six years, a pioneering winery in ecologic viticulture where he made some internationally renowned wines. During the last three years, he was Technical Director and oenologist at the winery Château de Lastours.

The 38 years old Frenchman has left his birthplace, the South of France, in order to settle down in Mallorca, full of joy and enthusiasm for the Biniagual project, where winemaking started 20 years ago. “I love the potential of the terroir, of Mallorca’s autochthonous grape varieties and it’s complex and well-balanced wines“, says Matthieu, who is leading the team in the vineyards and in the winery, with cellarmen José Luis Seguí and Isaías Curiel.

Circular agriculture

“Biniagual’s project also attracts me because of its philosophy of polyculture and circular agriculture”, says the oenologist. “We have sown leguminous plants and cereals as green fertilizer and in order to compete with weeds in a natural way. The seeds proceed from our own production, as well as the manure and compost produced by our sheep. Thus, we return part of what the soil produces.

Finca Biniagual, apart from a winery, is a farm with 170 hectares: vineyards, olive groves, citrus trees, carob and almond trees, plantations of cereals and a Flock of 300 sheep. The agriculture is certified as Integrated Production, a system that guarantees a sustainable production of food products using environmentally friendly methods.

Mallorca´s particular climate is not unfamiliar for the french oenologist. “I come from the South of France, which lots of climatic similitudes. Both are regions deficient in rain, semi-desertic and with a Mediterranean climate. There is a difference in the wind – in the South of France, el Tramuntana blows much more forceful; and in the summer heat, which is more intense in Mallorca“.