Languedoc: Château d'Agel, Minervois

This old-as-history estate, and associated wines, originally featured as part of my ad hoc pick of a variety of producers encountered and tasted at the end of October 2008, during Les Grands Chemins "Rencontres en Minervois" (an annual wine, food and arts festival centred on the broodingly Mediaeval village of Minerve and surrounding area - that link goes to the website). A group of us stayed the night at Château d'Agel, which really is a magnificent full-monty ye olde chateau: click here to read a piece I did for Decanter magazine on great wine places to stay in the region ("Wine travel: western Languedoc"). A taster if you can't be bothered:

"... Not far from the amazing Mediaeval town of Minerve itself and much talked-about La Livinière appellation, is the quiet village of Agel, seat of Château d’Agel. This splendid place really is a full-on fortress complete with turrets, coats of arms, wide swirling staircases and no doubt secret passages too..."

And a couple of reds sampled in an appropriate setting of the old cellar:

2004 Grenache - maturing smoky nose, appealing full-bodied fruit v light bite of tannins to finish. 85+
2007 Minervois (Carignan Grenache Syrah) - touch of vanilla oak but it has attractive fruit, textured dark chocolate and bitter black fruit twist. 85+

And this "white of the moment" from Jan. 2006:

2004 Minervois blanc Château d'Agel (Macabeu & Muscat, 13%) - a pleasant surprise, given that Minervois isn't famous for whites: fairly rich oily textured palate balanced by lively aromatic fruit. €3-4 88

More info: www.chateaudagel.fr 

Languedoc: Domaine de la Combe Blanche, Minervois-La Livinière

Domaine de la Combe BlancheGuy Vanlancker has slightly more eclectic plantings than most in the area - including some Tempranillo and Pinot Noir too! - which are the base (the non-eclectic varieties that this) for two pretty representative blends, both appellation Minervois-La Livinière: La Chandelière (mostly Syrah + Grenache) and La Galine (Syrah Grenache Carignan Cinsault), among others. These wines seem to stand the test of time well, especially La Chandelière: I remember once trying a rather good 1990 or 91 with about ten years on the clock, which I'd given to my uncle & aunt a few years beforehand and who'd had the sense to keep it. Anyway, Belgian Guy first moved here in 1981 and bought a few vineyard parcels around La Livinière, which is a cute wee village; so it’s easy to visit a few other producers on foot, especially since there are plenty of suitably pointy signposts. I bumped into Guy at the end of October 2008, during Les Grands Chemins "Rencontres en Minervois" festival, and tasted the following:
2003 La Galine (14.5%) - warming and spicy, quite soft yet punchy mouth-feel; turning savoury, mature and tasty on the finish. 87+
2004 La Chandelière (60% Syrah) - quite tight and firm with chocolate oak texture; concentrated and lightly perfumed, pepper and liquorice with attractive dry tannins on the finish.89-91

And these at Vinisud in Montpellier back in Feb 2004:
2001 La Chandelière - Leathery touches to the tightly structured and spicy fruit, finishes with long bite of tannins and alcohol. Needs time to come together. 92
2002 La Galine - Rich chocolate and plum fruit, very concentrated and tight, grippy but quite fine and fresh too. 90
2000 La Galine - Aromatic, spicy pepper and blackberry; has nice texture and grip with lengthy mineral finish. 89
2000 Vin de Pays blanc (Roussanne Viognier Chardy) - Developing vegetal and complex minty notes, light toffee characters lend a rounded 'sweetness', finishing with a blast of alcohol. 87
2002 Vin de Pays blanc - Bit of toasty oak combines with creamy and yeast-lees characters; rounded and quite rich, dry and full finish. 87
2001 Vin de Pays Tempranillo - Lots of new oak and very grippy texture; we'll see if it opens out nicely as it's too oaky at the moment, although there could be something there... 80-84
Didn't like his 2001 Pinot at the time, I'm afraid!

3 Ancien Chemin du Moulin Rigaud, 34210 La Livinière. Tel: 04 68 91 44 82 or 06 80 43 40 61 (mobile), lacombeblanche.com, contact@lacombeblanche.com.