Harvest time at Château IBJ

After 20 years in the wine business (how time flies), 7 of which have been spent in the Languedoc, I couldn't resist any longer. Yes, we bought a vineyard. Since May this year we have been owners of a small but perfectly formed hectare of Syrah vines. 15 years old, and in a beautiful spot on the other side of the hill from our house in the Minervois village of Mailhac.

The vines came with a share in the local cave co-op so we sold some of the grapes there but kept back 3 rows for ourselves which we have vinified in the corner of the garage.

The bit for the co-op was harvested on the 9th September (hubby's birthday).



The grapes for us were harvested a week later on the 16th September.



Here is our neighbour and consultant winemaker, Didier.


The grapes were destemmed


And then poured from the bins into a 1000 litre tank. They just fit!


More on the vinification in the next post.

Château La Grave, Badens

I visit Château La Grave maybe 3 or 4 times a year and have learnt from experience that it is better to be overdressed. I'm not talking about formal dress - this is a working wine domaine after all - but rather that it is significantly cooler than at home, a mere 30 km away, and even in summer I have felt the chill of a fresh breeze blowing across the Les Balcons de l'Aude. This cooler microclimate is the main reason why this domaine is particularly successful with white wines, although the range includes red wines, rosés and a Cartagène.

It is a sizeable property, around 100 hectares in all, spread over the hills around Badens, between Trebes and Marseillette and just a few kilometres from the famous Cité of Carcassonne. It is owned by the Orosquette family (pictured above), who run the domaine with the help of a closely knit, young team, headed by the capable and very professional Jean-Francois Orosquette. The wines are consistently good and well made. And fairly priced. They have been successful in export markets, available now in 15 countries.

Wines tasted were mostly the 2010 vintage, the whites bottled just before Christmas and the red 2010 in January. Prices are per bottle, cellar door. I sell some of these wines in the UK so there is a commercial interest here.

Vin de Pays des Hauts de Badens, 2010
An easy drinking blend of Listan (aka Palomino, the grape that makes Sherry), Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Chasan, a cross between Chardonnay and Listan.
Attractive green fruit nose, slight gooseberry, citrus flavours with fresh acidity. Good balance, medium length. Very good value. 3,90€

Expression Blanc, AOC Minervois, 2010
Their entry level Minervois white was particularly successful in 2010. Based on Maccabeo with some Vermentino and Marsanne, this has citrus, nutty aromas and a sprightly lemon, nutty palate. Quite elegant and understated. 6,20€

Privilège Blanc, AOC Minervois, 2008
This is their top white wine which they only make it the quality merits it. A blend of Maccabeo and Grenache which is fermented and aged in oak. I was told this was really too young but it seemed just right to me.
Nutty, oaky nose followed by smooth creamy palate. There is oak here but there is an elegance and delicacy to the palate which prevents it being over oaked. Very good, even at this price. 10€

Expression Rosé, AOC Minervois, 2010
Paler than in previous year, this is delicately pink and pretty. Bit closed (very cold) but some attractive red, herby fruits there and good mid palate richness. 6€

Tristan et Julien Rouge, 2010
50/50 Syrah Grenache, this is only just bottled and is brimming with youthful summer fruit flavours. Lots of lovely juicy fruit. This is delicious and easy to drink. Look forward to summer and enjoy slightly chilled with a picnic. 6€

Expression Rouge, AOC Minervois , 2008
50% Syrah with Grenache and Carignan, unoaked. This is drinking beautifully now. Mid-weight Minervois with soft, brambley, spicy fruit balanced by fine tannins. €6

Chateau Canet La Chapelle 2009

Chateau Canet is in the Carcassonne end of the Minervois, near the pretty little village of Rustiques. It is owned by a Dutch/New Zealand couple, Floris and Victoria Lemstra-Bake who previously spent 17 years in Burgundy working in the wine and tourism industry respectively. They have put their experiences there to good use at Canet where they have a collection of well appointed holiday cottages as well as the wine estate.

They have 45 hectares of vines and their newest release comes from their oldest plot of Grenache vines which lies on the site of the old 11th Century chapel - hence the name La Chapelle. It is the 2009 vintage so very young. It is deliberately not oak aged and bottled early to capture the grape's fruitiness. Hand harvesting and daily foot-treading says the back label (well the French bit anyway. Interestingly the French and English blurb on the back label are completely different!). Coupled with an extremely heavy bottle, this is clearly aiming to be a top notch product.

And, yes, it is pretty smart. Floris recommended decanting this. I didn't but I poured a generous tasting glass and kept going back to it over the afternoon which amounts to the same thing. The aromas took several hours to unfurl and are now very enticing with black cherry and raspberry notes. There is lots of generous, fleshy fruit on the palate. Again raspberry, hint of violet. Plum skin. Just a touch of a leathery character which will no doubt develop in bottle. There's a fair bit of tannin here but it's well balanced as there is so much fruit. This is a big wine - the label says 14.5% but I reckon it's closer to 15%.

Open a bottle of this on a cold winters evening when the fire is blazing. Drink with something slightly gamy such as pheasant or woodcock. Mushrooms will work too. Make sure you're not driving. And decant it. At least 2 hours in advance.

Minervois tasting

It's that time of year again when the Chai at Homps, the shop window of the Minervois, organises blind tastings to select wines for sale for the coming year. There were 223 wines being tasted and about 40 tasters, most of them local vignerons who may, unknowingly, be judging their own wines!

I was tasting AOC reds from 4 - 5 euros and the star wine in the flight came from the Cave Co-operative in Argeliers. Their 2007 Marcelin Albert sells for 4,90€ and with ripe fruit,smooth elegant tannins and a lick of spicy oak, this is great value. Marcelin Albert is feted as the leader of the 1907 vignerons revolt and it is his face that adorns the label. That is the worst thing about the wine. Also good was 2006 Cuvée des Clots from Chateau de Puicheric. I detected a touch of oak here too and plenty of ripe, smooth fruit. Unoaked and brimming with easy, accessible fruit was Domaine Cavailles 2007. Worth stocking up on for summer BBQs. And finally, Les Trois Bloisons 2008 Minervois was fruity, smooth, easy drinking. Simple, yes, but who cares for under 4 euros a bottle?

Kind of the top Minervois reds was Chateau Beaufort, 2003 (I forget the cuvée name). Sumptuous and with lively fruit, despite the age, and an enticing nose of the garrigue.

Spring in the air, so it's good to note a couple of fine rosés. Chateau Ste Eulalie is a perennial favourite and the 2009 does not disappoint. Vibrant pink with oodles of red fruits and a fine backbone of tannin. Paler and more elegant but with lots of round summer fruit mid-palate was Chateau Villerambert 2009. Coup de coeur for the tasters, including me.

French wine with an English accent

There are no shortage of Brits in the Languedoc, and quite a few of them have followed their dream of making their own wine in the south of France and bought wine domaines.

Jim and Sarah Pearce of Domaine de la Souterrane make wine but their initial interest was in farming rather winemaking. Jim had a farming background in England and in 2005 he and his wife bought a fruit farm near Argeliers in the Minervois which was mainly peach trees but also included some vines.  Their first year was a baptism of fire when the jam factory which had bought all the peaches went out of business and they were stuck with plenty of fruit but no market. This enterprising couple quickly put up a sign advertising 'pick your own' peaches in an effort to salvage at least some of the fruit. 'Pick your own' farms are not well known in this part of France but locals loved it and the Pearces now have extended the concept to raspberries, strawberries, melons, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and sweetcorn. And branched into pig farming as the pigs gorge themselves on the surplus peaches which fall to the ground.

As regards the grapes, these were all sold to the cave co-operative in Argeliers but prices were so low that Jim and Sarah felt they would get a better return if they bottled the wines themselves. Luckily, they had inherited well-tended vineyards with good quality varieties; the fashionable Viognier, Chardonnay, Merlot and some 50 year old Carignan. With the advice of Australian flying winemaker David Morrison, they have developed a small but sound range of varietal Vin de Pays wines.

Their 2007 Chardonnay-Viognier is a rich, peachy, simple wine with a touch of spice which is still drinking well. They have just bottled their first straight Viognier from the 2008 vintage. Partially barrel-fermented this is very aromatic and exotic on the nose with good rich, apricot, fruit flavours and fresh acidity to balance the richness and alcohol. It has only just been bottled so needs a couple of months to come round but is an excellent example of Viognier. 

I also liked the 2007 Merlot. I'm not a huge fan of Languedoc Merlot but this had lots of rich, cherry and blackcurrant fruit with grippy but not aggressive tannins. Not a subtle wine but very appealing. The old vine Carignan is the top of the range. The nose was slightly grubby but there was oodles of sweet, ripe black fruit on the palate and a long, sweet finish.

Overall, impressive, fruit-forward wines which offer excellent value for money. The Pearces have only just started and with Syrah vines coming into production next year, things can only get better.

 

Judging Minervois

The Chai Port Minervois, beside the canal du midi in Homps, is an excellent shop window for Minervois wines. Its manager Laurent de Roulhac, is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about local wines and each year he organises as series of tastings to select the best wines for the Chai.

The tastings are held at the Maison du Minervois in Siran and involve tasting various flights blind and rating them in terms of quality and value for money. I tasted a flight of upmarket Minervois reds, ranging in price from €6 - €11. It was a respectable line-up with no real mingers. My favourite was 2006 Chateau du Donjon, a beautifully balanced, elegant Minervois with fine tannins and good depth of black fruit with hints of tea and smoke. Well worth €9/bottle. I also enjoyed the Cuvée Vincent Minervois from Domaine Festiano in Tourouzelles. It was brimming with ripe blackerry and raspberry fruit and good value at €7.10. I liked the Minervois from Domaine Entretan, finding it concentrated and long with a lovely garrigue nose. Sadly, my co-tasters disagreed with me. The 1997 Chateau Maris had attractive depth of black fruits on the palate, framed by youthful but smooth tannins, and an impressively long finish. It lost points from me for an overly reductive nose.