Mas Amiel is a large property – the biggest private cellar in Maury – located in the heart of the Agly valley, in France’s Roussillon region. This is Cathar country: it’s beautiful but rugged—a hot, rather hostile environment with rocky, stony soils, frequent windy weather, and 260 days’ sunshine a year. Back in 1816, a bishop used one of his plots of land as a bet in a game of cards. He lost it to Raymond Amiel, and this is how Mas Amiel was born. At the time, it only had 10 hectares of vines on it; it has grown substantially since then.