Introduction

Six generations

Damien Mathon represents the sixth generation of winegrowers. In the beginning of the 90's, the family estate stretched out on about twenty-two hectares ( 1 hectare = 10000 m2 = 2471 acres ) of vineyard. It was then that Marcel ( Damien's father ) decided they would both set up their own estate.

In the Mathon's family,according to an old tradition, all girls and boys are offered a silver cup (Tassée d'Argent ) for their twentieth birthdays.
This custom inspired Marcel Mathon to choose the name of his new estate. Then, he and his wife Marie-Claire set up the business called The Estate of the Tassée d'Argent in 1993. Their son Damien has been working with them since 1998 and he's now taking on the management of the family business.

Tradition and Modernity

The produce originally consisted only of red wines (Beaujolais, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly ) and the work on the vineyard was done according to ancestral methods: the lifting and tying up of the branches are done stock after stock with wicker, the pruning and the harvest are done by hand... These methods are still used today for the making of the three prestigious wines that have been produced at the Tassée d'Argent since 2005 : Brouilly, Côtes de Brouilly and Morgon. They are very structured wines that can age for ten years before drinking.

Marcel and Damien Mathon soon endeavoured to diversify the range in order to please the great majority of customers. Therefore, as they started planting the Chardonnay vine on 2.3 hectares in order to produce some white Beaujolais, they were already converting Gamay grapes into a rosé wine.
More recently, with the help from a specialist they started producing a fruit juice that is also made from gamay grapes and that children find delightful. Finally, in 2007, the range grew richer with a true party- wine : the Framboisette , a raspberry-flavoured sparkling wine. From now on, you can drink wine of the Estate from the apéritif to the dessert.

In order to produce these more modern, more trendy wines (Rosé, White, Primeur), the vineyard was restructured and modernised. The space between the rows of the vineyard has widened from 1m (= 40 inches) to 1.80m, and sometimes almost 2m.This innovation brings a lot of advantages: a better aeration of the stocks and the possibility of planting grass between the rows reduces the risk of diseases for the vineyard and so allows to use less chemicals. Planting grass also allows to eliminate both erosion (furrows dug by storms) and the risk for tractors to overturn.

The sealing system is called the Stelvin cap. It is a screwcap, that is very appreciated by the Anglo- Saxons and that possess many advantages:
- it suppresses the cork taint ;
- it suppresses the couleuses, the leaks that occured when the wine bottles are kept in a horizontal position ;
- it allows a better preserving of the wine than with any other system (cork or plastic) for the circulation of air between the inside and outside the bottle is almost totally eliminated thanks to the pressure exerted on the cap (200kg/m2 = 450 pounds/ 10.764 square feet).
- Finally , it allows the customers to put the cap back on the bottle once it's been opened.
We think this system has a good future in the wine business as well as it did in the strong alcohol industry such as vodka, whisky...We've been using it since 1995 and were among the forerunners.

Our objectives

Today, we have two main objectives as far as developing the estate is concerned :

• We want to carry on restructuring the vineyard (a larger planting, planting grass and the cutting down of chemical treatment).
• The highest development of the French and international customers. Because there is nothing better for a producer than to trade directly with the customers .Because there's nothing more reassuring for the customer than to buy directly at the producer's (unlike some traders , we don't mix wines from different estates.At the Estate of the Tassée d'Argent you'll buy the wine of a single producer)