Friday 24 April 2009

La Jasse Castel, Montpeyroux


One of my favourite wines at the moment comes from Montpeyroux, one of the Languedoc's quality hotspots. The village of Montpeyroux has its share of top producers - Domaine Aupilhac, Alain Chabanon and Domaine Aigueliere are the best known. La Jasse Castel is a fairly recent arrival to Montpeyroux. Pascale Marcillaud and her husband Laurent made their first vintage in 1998 and have just 8 hectares of prime, low yielding vineyards on the slopes of Mount Baudile. 

Pascale's 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc is a deep, inky purple colour and has an explosively fruity nose of blackberries, cherries and juniper. There's a definite whiff of the garrigue here. It tastes similarly luscious and fruity with black cherries, licquorice, and tarry flavours nicely framed by ripe yet grippy tannins. This wine couldn't come from anywhere but the Languedoc and I love it for that. 9 €/bottle.


2 comments:

  1. That sounds like a great wine. Wish I had found it when we were in Montpeyroux several years ago. By the way, Juliet, is the Tour d'Horlage wine bar/restaurant still there in the center of Montpeyroux. My wife and I stopped in there the one day we stayed in town, and loved it. There were some interesting wines (including an all Carignan wine bottled by the proprietor), and the owner was a great character.

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  2. Bob - I've only been to the Tour d'Horloge restaurant once, about 6 years ago. It had lots of character. Sadly it is no more but in its place is a good bistro/ wine shop called La Terrasse du Mimosa. It's a great stop for lunch and they have an excellent wine list with the wine prices just 6 euros a bottle more than the wine shop prices, irrespective of what the wine is. So no crazy restaurant mark ups. Worth popping in if you're ever passing through again.

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