Dance First. Think Later. Paul Old of Project 108
With all this rain in the UK recently, it’s been nice to think back to a visit to Paul Old of Project 108 towards the end of last summer. It was a glorious sunny day, hot enough that, before we stepped into the cool of Paul’s cellar off a main street in the extremely charming Peyriac-de-Mer, we left some urgent washing to dry on the roof of the car . . .
It’s been a pleasure to work with Paul since his first vintage in 2018. Paul is an expat Australian who moved to London for a career as a dancer. After his “body began to fall apart”, he considered turning his enthusiasm for wine into a new profession (although life as a vigneron is not exactly one of ease). A chance visit to a friend in Corbieres showed him the potential of the old vines being torn up across the region. Deciding there and then to use the dancer’s resettlement funds to retrain as a winemaker in Australia, he later made his way back to Corbieres and launched Le Clos Perdus (The Lost Vineyards) in 2003, beginning with an abandoned half hectare of his first love: old-vine Carignan.
By 2018, the biodynamic Le Clos Perdus had grown to 20 hectares and, finding himself increasingly drawn to natural wine, Paul began Project 108 as a workshop-style domaine to explore zero-zero winemaking. Where Le Clos Perdus is “vision-driven”, Project 108 offers a chance for more experimentation, more creativity, and more uncertainty; it was an opportunity to use different grapes, try different approaches, to un-learn and re-think established habits in the vineyard and the cellar.
None of which is to say the wines are experimental in themselves. These are unmistakably southern wines, with a maritime influence given their proximity to the Mediterranean. Paul makes two 108 wines each year: a Rouge that depends on the parcel he's looking to work with, and Cabirou, a macerated Muscat (with a splash of Grenache Gris) from a breathtaking patch of old vines high up in the hills. In the cellar the only rule is "leave it". It’s an evolving experiment, the choice of vessels, maceration times and elevage can change each year, but the idea remains pure: nothing added, nothing taken away, doing as little as possible for the best result.
Paul lined up a selection of 108 vintages for us on a table in the cellar, an old brick garage on the ground floor of the house he shares with his wife, Deborah. It was a treat to be led through the years, a brilliant opportunity to see where Paul's decisions – or lack of – have led him. Paul speaks with passion and great warmth, always happy to discuss his thinking, while being receptive to your impressions and views as a drinker of his wine.
He was philosophical about 2025, a difficult vintage in the area, with damaging wildfires and ongoing drought. “I've learnt that regenerative farming is the only tool we have,” he said. “It's the only way to feel positive. It's what keeps the vines speaking interestingly to you. With the hydric stress, I have my suspicions that the vines that are surviving are digging deeper, pulling up more interesting matter. I'm loving the wines; there's just not much of them. You'd be thinking this is a year the vines should be feeling impoverished, but they seem to be the best reflection of the terroir we've done." We drove away inspired, excited, and enthused, and – of course – with our washing still on the car roof.
We are very happy to offer three vintages of the 108 Rouge and the Cabirou 2024 on the website now:
[Red] 108 Rouge 2021
Carignan, Mourvèdre
The 2021 edition of 108 Rouge uses younger vines than in previous years (which had been Carignan from 100+ year old vines). This is Carignan again, now with a splash of Mourvèdre, aged for 11 months with half of the wine in clay amphora and half in stainless steel. This is very much a southern wine, the fruit is pure, dense, even lush, with grainy tannins and broad mouthfeel. This is aging very well.
[Red] 108 Rouge 2022
Mourvèdre
2022 saw 108 Rouge go full Mourvèdre for the first time, highlighting the savoury and autumnal character of this most southern of grapes, especially when it's grown so close to the Mediterranean. A pleasurable wine of place and full of wonderful complexity: rustic, pure, earthy, aromatic, windswept and romantic, with faded roses and lingering tannins.
[Red] 108 Rouge 2023
Mourvèdre
Paul's love affair with Mourvèdre continues into the 2023, this vintage from very small yields, as the Corbières region was impacted by drought. There's a lot more immediate fruit here than in the 2022: red berries, cherries, plums, all grounded by Mourvèdre's innate earthiness. The contrasts are playful, slinky but robust, with smooth tannins and enveloping length. Paul has subtitled this vintage as 'Creature of the Night', which gives you a good idea.
[Skin] Cabirou 2024
Muscat, Grenache Gris
Big, juicy, fleshy, so sunny and stony and fresh! Lots of stone fruit, minerals, and fleshy (that word again, but it's true) tropical fruits, with a little hint of herbaceous garrigue. Wonderfully refreshing. An excellent vintage for this wine.
