WineWriting.com: day trip through Côtes de Provence, Massif des Maures

Côtes de Provence: Massif des Maures
Daytrip early November 2003

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A day trip in early November 2003 took in a handful of wine estates dotted along the peaceful (at that time of year at least) coastal strip between Hyères and Saint-Tropez, skirting the edges of the omnipresent silhouette of the Massif des Maures. Four of these were so-called Cru Classé properties: Château Sainte Marguerite, Clos Mireille (Domaines Ott), Château de Brégançon and Château Minuty. This slightly dubious 'classification' dating from 1956 holds no credible status in terms of official criteria for superiority, but it certainly pumps up the prices and expectations. Having said that, some of the Cru Classé wines are undeniably very good and swim gracefully above the shoals of mediocrity found in the vast sea that is Côtes de Provence. And if price and stature truly reflect track record, a natural hierarchy can sometimes speak volumes. I also visited Château Barbeyrolles, where I tasted the juice of their other estate Château la Tour de l’Evêque; and have included other Provence wines from the Ott stable.

From www.chateausaintemarguerite.com Château Sainte Marguerite naturally unrolls the red carpet for you with its charming, palm tree-lined drive. It’s owned by laid-back and talkative Jean-Pierre Fayard, whose quality-focused approach appears to be paying off. He has 50 hectares (= 120 acres) here just north of La Londe-les Maures, and his son Guillaume Enzo looks after a new domaine (bought established vineyard in 1999 and resurrected the property) called Château Hermitage St. Martin situated towards Toulon. Out of about 300,000 bottles produced annually, 50% is rosé, 30% red and the rest white, which is high for white in Côtes de Provence. They have some 11 ha of white grapes across the two vineyards, which Jean-Pierre has developed because he believes “La Londe is good for whites…Rolle is excellent here.” This sentiment was echoed at my next stop too.

He’s also keen on Cabernet Sauvignon, but planting is unlikely to progress as the Syndicat is against it (probably in light of too many green-edged wines made from it, surprisingly perhaps). “It’s good if it’s good: it has to be ripe and not over-cropped. You have to go for lower yields here otherwise it’s not of interest.” In the past there was a greater diversity of varieties, now most growers use the same ones. Some of them have up to half of their vineyards planted with Grenache, another grape where you have to be careful with yields but generally performs well and should really be the style backbone in this neck of the woods.

We had an interesting chat about noticeable climate change and implications of the drought conditions in 2003 for the future. Jean-Pierre estimates his average yields over the last ten years were about 40 hectolitres per ha, but from 2000-2003 probably less than 30 hl/ha simply because it’s got drier and drier. “We try to avoid over-stressing the vines by working the soil in spring and summer.” Before 1990, he remembers having problems reaching the minimum degree of alcohol (for appellation regulations); now they have to watch out for too much sugar ripeness (although viticulture 'improvements' particularly obsessive canopy management no doubt play a part too). “We need to evolve the laws with changes in the weather. Some do irrigate and take the risk, there’s no control over AOC. The ones in charge (in Paris implied) have no idea what’s happening in the south. The vines are really struggling: c’est penible.”

We moved on from this hot topic to the cellar to taste some wines from vat and barrel. The two 2003s I tried showed great promise: cuvée prestige rosé (€10) was intense yet rounded and fruity, and the 100% Rolle had lovely fruit and crisp length. They have about 70 new barriques here although prefer to use more 1+ year-old ones. However, the 2002 red (Syrah and Cab) tasted from barrique showed nice ripe fruit and texture. Jean-Pierre reckons “2003 will be good for all colours, 2002 for rosés particularly.”

A short drive from here off the beaten track led me to Clos Mireille, one of three properties making up Domaines Ott (Champagne Louis Roederer recently bought the controlling share), where I was greeted by Marion Ott. This estate is unusual as they currently only make white wines here, from 50/50 Sémillon and Ugni blanc, claiming La Londe has a particularly suitable ‘terroir’. Overall – taking into account Château de Selle, also in Côtes de Provence, and Château Romassan in Bandol – Ott produce 60% rosé, 25% white and only 15% red. Their Blanc de Blancs sourced from the 45 ha at Clos Mireille “has been a success…we like to be different,” Marion explained.

A quick tour uncovered building work on a new cellar extension to enable them to better accommodate increasing numbers of visitors. Equipment still includes traditional large tuns: “We’ve always had these, they’re not new but we do renew some every year. Oak isn’t used to flavour the wines except for L’Insolent, which is fermented in 2 year-old barrels with the malolactic in foudres.” The 2003 vintage for white grapes began on 20th August, normally taking place from around 15th September…“five years ago: it seems earlier every year since,” Marion said reiterating the general experience.

The tasting revealed an elegant, classic style rosé 2002 from Château de Selle; the 2001 Clos Mireille Blanc de Blancs showed good oily depth but slightly fading fruit; 2000 L’Insolent was rich and toasty, not for everyone but a decent food wine; and 2000 Bandol: not a blockbuster but had nice pure fruit. I guess the somewhat inflated prices of these wines reflect their successful positioning and the demand for the Ott name.

A few kilometres along the winding road heading east, towards Bormes Les Mimosas, you come across Château de Brégançon, a grand old property that does look lived-in. You know: not too swanky, you’d like it as your summer residence. The ‘directeur technique’ Olivier Tézenas had already rung me earlier apologising for a sudden change of plan and hence his absence. I decided to show up anyway to get a sneak preview, and came across a nephew who found his helpful grandfather who opened up the tasting room cum shop.

Château de Brégançon from www.chateau-de-bregancon.fr “We’re just on the Massif des Maures here,” Monsieur Tézenas senior pointed out with the help of a map of the local area. “The soils are more acidic, we actually have to add chalk.” He also provided a few further titbits of throwaway information: “We’ve introduced some mechanical harvesting done at night, which helped a lot this year as it was too hot doing it by hand... For the rosés and whites, we leave the grapes on the skins for a few hours to increase aromatics” (and of course colour of the former). On the whole, a fairly traditional operation and wines: some good rosés, especially the 2002 prestige (€9.90), but the reds stood out such as their top cuvée Hermann Sabran 1999 made with one third Cabernet, lending a more Bordeaux-like structure, power and price tag (€15).

The next Cru Classé on the itinerary, Château Minuty perched down the hill a little from the pretty town of Gassin not far from St. Tropez, certainly fits the bill visually: a grandiose yet elegant 18th-Century estate. It’s been in the Matton family since 1936, I’m told by the fast-tongued PR/tour guide, who expanded it from 17 to the current 65 ha. The grounds also house a quaint old chapel dating from the Napoléon III era, where a ceremonial mass is held at the start of the vintage.

In 2003, the harvest got under way on, "incredibly," the 11th August. The downside of the heat wave quickly became apparent to them: “The heat also caused problems with uneven ripening.” Fruit on younger vines matured rapidly because of the temperatures but wasn’t necessarily physiologically ripe (sugar ahead of tannins in particular); the old vines fared better. “The reds are rich in alcohol, fruit and phenolic matter (colour/tannin) but perhaps lack elegance and aroma.” In the vineyard, as is rightly becoming the norm (or so everybody says at least), no pesticides or herbicides are used and only copper sulphate as a preventative treatment (but how much, I forgot to ask?) Winds blowing from the sea and hills also help to combat possible rot problems. All pruning is done by hand, and the soil is tilled with addition of horse and sheep manure after analysis where it lacks nutrients. Yields stand at 55 hl/ha max.

At harvest time, they set up two de-stemmers outside and pump the must directly into the presses next door. This way maceration can be done for the rosés in the bag presses, which are then emptied into vats without further pumping (for whites too). These are left at 10 degrees overnight to settle, racked and fermented in the stainless tanks installed in 2000 especially for whites and rosés. Small vats (cement with new plastic coating) are used to ferment the reds "to obtain more structured and tannic wines," which undergo a longer than usual maceration on skins and 18 months ageing in barrel. Some of the 2003 reds were undergoing their malo in barriques: Mourvèdre, Syrah and Grenache, which will be kept separate until blending before bottling.

Half of the export-geared production at Château Minuty is rosé wine, the 2002 cuvée réserve being a fine & zesty example, made from old Grenache, Tibouren and Syrah. I also tasted an attractively peachy Vin de Pays ‘Blanc et Or de Minuty’ made from Sauvignon blanc, Roussanne and Viognier; and the excellent New World-leaning cuvée réserve red 2001 with 90% Syrah & 10% Grenache. Once again, the prices were correspondingly high for so-called Cru Classé wines, although it's true that the 'Provence brand' on the whole helps.

I arrived so late at Château Barbeyrolles next door that just two admin staff remained, who obligingly opened a few bottles. The verdict: not bad but not great wines, although nice rosés, with better reds from their other CDP property Château la Tour de l’Evêque; for example, the 2000 ‘regular’ and ‘barrique’ cuvées at €12 and €13.