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.

Pinot Noir exports don't add up

An investigation is ongoing into alleged fraud of wine which was sold as Pinot Noir when it wasn't in fact made from pinot. The discrepancy first came to light in Spring 2008 when a vinous fraud squad did a spot check at SAS Ducasse de Carcassonne, a well known negociant in the region. Sieur d'Arques in Limoux is also involved in the investigation. 

The Languedoc Roussillon's annual production of Pinot Noir is around 53,000 hectolitres but it is estimated that since 2005 more than 100,000 hectolitres of Pinot Noir was exported to the USA each year. 

Faugères facts

My last post talked about schist and a couple of producers of note. Here are a few more facts about Faugères, courtesy of the Faugères Appellation Press Dossier.

- The appellation consists of 2075 hectares of vines

- There are 7 villages in the Faugères appellation

- Faugères was awarded the appellation for red and rosé wine in 1982

- They had to wait until 2005  for it to be extended to white Faugères

- the average altitude in Faugères is 250 metres

- the average yield for AOC Faugères in 2007 was 34 hectolitres per hectare. The maximum yield permitted by the AOC regs is 50 hl/ha

- 11% of Faugères is exported

Faugères - all about schist

Yesterday afternoon I toddled off to Faugères for a tasting of the 2008 vintage. 35 producers presented their wines in the appropriately named Salle de Bacchus, under large posters displaying the region's new artwork and strapline ' Faugères, l'appellation Nature schiste.`

This striking new poster captured the essence of Faugères. Schist. For the record, schist is a metamorphic rock which can be easily split into thin layers. The french word 'schiste' also means slate, which is a type of schist, as well as the broader term, schist.

All the vineyards within the Faugères appellation are grown on schist - in fact it is the only appellation in the Languedoc to be based on one homogenous terroir. Vineyards with a high proportion of schist are  naturally low yielding and they force the vine to send its roots deep down in search of water and nutrients. This stands the vine in good stead in times of drought. In addition, the stones act as mini heat stores. They absorb the heat during the day and radiate it back to the  grapes at night, so promoting grape maturity.

So what of the wines? I particularly enjoyed the 2003 Grande Cuvée from Chateau des Estanilles, which had oodles of dark,  brooding fruit and was just beginning to develop and reveal tantalising hints of tea, dark chocolate, tar and smoke.  Soon after I moved to the Languedoc I tasted the 1998 vintage of this wine which was (and no doubt still is) staggeringly good.

In complete contrast, but just as good, were the wines of Domaine Cottebrune. This domaine is small, only 10 hectares and is owned by Pierre Gaillard, an accomplished and celebrated winemaker in the Rhone. He is best known for his Cote Rotie, which is also based on schist.  Pierre's sure touch is in evidence in these impeccably made, stylish wines. The 2007 Transhumance is concentrated yet elegant, with a deft touch of oak. The 2007 Parole de Berger is the top wine, a masterly blend of 80% Syrah and 20% Grenache. Cold maceration pre-fermentation, malolactic in barrel and 12 months ageing in barrel, of which 30% were new are the points to note in the vinification. The resulting wine is brimming with plum and black cherry fruit with hints of smoke and coffee. The oak is well  balanced and it has a lovely long finish. A classy wine with a good future ahead of it.

White Corbières anyone?

Corbières is known for its rugged, full-throttle reds so it is unusual to come across a producer who has built a reputation on the quality of its white wines. Domaine Roque Sestière is a small, family domaine, owned by Roland and Isabelle Lagarde, who make approximately 60,000 bottles a year, of which 70% is white. It was Isabelle’s father who created the domaine’s reputation for white wine and it has been proudly carried on by his daughter and son-in-law since taking over the domaine in 1994. 

The wine was first made in Ouveillan but the Lagardes have built a small but perfectly formed chai next to their house in the neighbouring village of Luc St Orbieu. The vineyards are still in Ouveillan but Roland has dramatically reduced the hectarage from 30 to 15 which gives him much more control over production and means he only needs to employ one worker.

When I visited in mid December, Roland was very preoccupied getting ready for bottling his 2008 whites. As I tasted the 2008 whites from tank he was anxiously pacing the floor to check that the bottling line would fit his small cellar. Nevertheless, he and Isabelle were very welcoming and one senses that they have a loyal clientele who appreciate, not only the quality and fair prices of their wines, but the passion and care of the people who make them.  

2008 Corbières Blanc, Carte Noire (tank sample)Appealing, fresh, zesty nose. Similarly fresh, peachy fruit with a hint of peach kernel; Good balancing and acidity and medium length. 15/20

2008 their biggest vintage ever and they are very happy with the quality.

 2008 Blanc Vieilles Vignes (tank sample). Similar (to previous wine) peach, nutty fruit on nose and palate but with more breadth and slight leesiness. Good acidity and long finish. Very promising. 16/20

 2007 Corbières Vieilles Vignes

leesy nose, apricot kernel. Attractive nutty, yeasty palate. Medium depth, balanced. Slightly hot finish. 14/20

Corbières Tradition Rouge 2006 €5

Upfront aromas of cherry and tar. Explosively fruity palate – cherry – almost jam – hint of bitter chocolate, firmness to tannins, slightly rustic, but essentially a very fruity, appealing wine which represents excellent value. 14/20

 

 

Apremont - the perfect wine on the piste.

It's fair to say that most wines consumed on ski holidays are best forgotten. So during a ski holiday in the Alps last week, I particularly enjoyed rediscovering a cracking Alpine wine, Apremont.

Apremont  is from the Savoie region, near Chambery and is made from the little-known Jacquère grape. As far as I know, Jacquère is only found in the Savoie and northern Rhone. Apremont is pale coloured and delicately scented with fresh, citrussy fruit flavours and a slightly minerally edge. Basically it is beautifully fresh and uplifting, a bit like the mountain air.  Domaine Les Rocailles make an excellent example, and it is widely distributed.

Garrigue - what is it?

Tasting notes of southern french red wines often include the intriguing descriptor 'garrigue'. So, what is it exactly? Garrigue is the name given to the Mediterranean scrubland which is made up of low growing, bushy plants including holm oak, juniper, broom and wild herbs such as rosemary and thyme. In Provence it also includes lavender although I have never seen this in the wild in the Languedoc. 

Walking amongst the garrigue on a warm day, crushing herbs underfoot, releases a fabulous aroma of warm thyme and rosemary. When used to describe a wine, garrigue refers to these green herby aromas. It can also be used to describe flavours too although I find it more evocative as a descriptor for aroma.

Thanks for the picture Loulou.

Egiodola

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? An unpleasant disease?

No it's a grape variety! And one I have to confess I'd never heard of until I tasted an example from Domaine de Brau at the Millesime-Bio wine fair in Montpellier last week.

Egiodola is a cross between Fer Servadou and Arbouriu. Fer Servadou is a characterful black grape found in south west France, particularly the Aveyron where is the main ingredient in Marcillac. It hitched up with Arbouriou (a variety which hails from the Lot originally) in the 1950s and the resulting Egiodola crops up occasionally in south west France and, curiously, in Brasil.

Egiodola means 'pure blood' in Basque.

The lady at Domaine de Brau explained that the wine combines up-front fruitiness with extreme tannins. Which it did.

So now you know!