Languedoc: Syrah, Minervois, La Rouviole & Borie de Maurel

Léonor family lurking among barrels

I suddenly felt a little comparative theme come on when I rediscovered notes on two wines tasted last year from these almost neighbouring wineries in Minervois (well, one in Siran and t'other in Félines-Minervois a couple or so of km away). Both of them are made intriguingly from 100% Syrah, which is 'allowed' in this appellation area but not in any other one in the Languedoc (apart from IGP/vin de pays wines), as far as I can think of off the top of my head. Syrah homogenisation or style/quality statement? And does it really matter, varietal vs blended appellation wine, as long as it tastes good and has character? Mull it over and you decide...

Domaine La Rouviole 2007 Coup de Théatre, Minervois (Syrah) - 100% Syrah in fact, giving nice pure floral spicy cherry fruit; powerful extracted palate yet reasonably well-balanced with it, concentrated vs firm tight finish still for a 07. Very good although quite pricey at £16.99 (Hallgarten Druitt, UK).

DLR is found in the Minervois La Livinière subzone (although this wine isn’t labelled up / 'classified' as such) and has been owned by the Léonor family since the 1950s, who’ve restored its hillside vineyards over the years to become one of the area’s leading estates. The terrain sprawls over 40 ha in total (100 acres) including swathes of wild scrubland and olive trees as well as vines. Their wines are also available in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Poland, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore. More info @ larouviole.fr.

Domaine Borie de Maurel 2008 Sylla, Minervois (100% Syrah) - ‘reductive’ herby notes/style to start with, tight and firm mouth-feel vs concentrated and nicely textured tannins actually, still young and closed up although promising. Another dear wine though at £27.95 (Terroir Languedoc, UK).

Owned by Michel and Sylvie Escande since 1989, who were also leading lights behind the creation of the La Livinière subzone kick-started in the late 90s, and aided and abetted by son Gabriel. BDM’s 35 ha (85 acres) of vineyards lie on the 'Petit Causse' on the edges of the Montagne Noire hills, some of them up to 300m altitude (1000 feet). They opened their own on-site "bar" in 2008 serving wine by the glass or bottle (theirs naturally) with "Occitan tapas" and home-grown vegetables.

More @ boriedemaurel.fr including poetic words, if you read French, and pretty photos such as "the windmill" above. And click here for notes on the latest BdM vintages and news from Michel:
Languedoc: Minervois, red white rosé 2010 and 2011 (tasting and touring report July 2012).

Burgundy: Chablis, Pinot Noir, Crémant de Bourgogne and "organic Burgundy..."

Coming soon: 2010 vintage Chablis 'Grand Cru' tasting (plus a few older vintages).
Recently posted and 'restored':

Posh Chablis @ M&S

Pinot Noir: Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand
Chablis/Crémant de Bourgogne: Maison Simonnet-Febvre
Organic Burgundy: Boyer, Giboulot, Goisot, de Suremain, Tripoz

Bordeaux: Château Fougas, Côtes de Bourg

I 'met' the owner-growers of Ch. Fougas, Jean-Yves and Michele Bechet, across the other side of a nevertheless cosy round table (knights of Côtes de Bourg perhaps, ho ho) at lunch at the recent Millésime Bio wine show in Montpellier (Languedoc). Their 17.5 hectare (43 acre) property, "one of the oldest in the area" (as it says on their site) and lying in Lansac just inland from the town of Bourg and hence the Dordogne River (for more info on the appellation, see link to feature below), is another recent convert over to organics (not many round these parts, I don't think by the way). 2010 was their first "officially certified" organic vintage, hence it was the only one they were allowed to have on tasting at the fair. And hence, being a recent vintage red, had just been bottled in time to bring along and was a little closed up although promising I'd say:

2010 Château Fougas 'Maldoror' (75% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon) - quite new-oaky on the nose (but was just bottled and a little awkward because of this, I think) although showing good depth of fairly dark cassis fruit; firm tight and structured palate, concentrated with attractive tannin texture. Needs a year or two to begin to blossom, very good though. www.fougas.com

And here's a snippet from a tasting & touring piece I penned on the Côtes de Bourg region following a great trip back in autumn 2009, including a nice note on the Fougas 2005:

"Côtes de where? Not the favourite coastal or riverbank hang-out for Jean-Luc Picard's scariest enemy, but a lesser-known "Right Bank" appellation... it's surprisingly easy to get your geography in a twist on this side of the river and forget you're actually opposite Margaux..." Notes on 40 wines including these favourites: Fougas, Clos du Piat, Relais de la Poste, Coulée de Bayon, Améthyste de Génibon, Haut-Guiraud, Labadie... plus thoughts on image, tasting grapes, Malbec and wine travel tips..." And "...challenge yourself while savouring the imperial grandeur and wines of these handsome properties in Listrac-Médoc: Fourcas-Dupré, Fonréaud, Lestage, Fourcas-Hosten..." Read on here (goes to "wine words" archive)!

Bordeaux: Château Fougas, Côtes de Bourg

I've moved this post here... (just to annoy you - click again there please).

Bandol: Château Tournier Guilhem

Guilhem, Henri and Genevieve Tournier’s compact and bijou property, lying not far from the cute hilltop village of La Cadière d’Azur a fair trek to the north of Bandol town, has two almost unique characteristics about it in context of the wider Bandol appellation. At six hectares (15 acres), it’s one of the smallest vineyards in an area probably better known for quite large estates (think Ch. Pibarnon at 50 ha or Dom. Tempier at 30, for instance); and it’s now certified organic (from 2011). “We were one of the first to convert to organics,” Genevieve confirmed in fact as I tasted at their stand at ‘Millésime Bio’ organic wine show in Montpellier last week. There was only one other organic estate from Bandol at the show - the ultra ‘natural’ and quirky Château Sainte-Anne (see post directly below) - which got me thinking why aren’t there more in this very French Mediterranean wine region? Not a criticism - people have their reasons and many non-organic growers (or not officially certified but more or less are anyway) are sensible about what they use, how much and why (as I’ve said before, I’ve never aimed to make this blog exclusively organic; it just so happens that an increasing amount of the best ones are, or in the process of) - but a question worth asking.

I digress - back to the Tournier’s wines, which were definitely worth unearthing after deciding it seemed like a good idea to see how many organic Bandol producers were exhibiting! I’ve also just re-published a towards-huge wad of exciting material on Bandol and its kingpin variety, Mourvèdre, originally gathered and scribbled from 2003 to 2006 (I lived in nearby Marseille for two of those years, by the way): click here and here for much more info then (goes to two pages in my “wine words” archive: the former featuring 150+ wines and a few winery touring pieces / profiles, the latter a more academic article called ‘Understanding Mourvèdre’ written for Wine Business, USA).

2011 Bandol rosé (majority Mourvèdre + Cinsault and Grenache, tank sample) - attractive juicy crisp rosé in that more elegant and mineral style, although has a bit of weight as well, showing aromatic citrus fruit with floral rose petal edges, nice structured bite and almost salty tangy finish.

2010 Bandol rosé - hints of yeast-lees, fuller rounder and oilier texture with developing red fruit flavours and still has a fresher side too; good although the 2011 will be better. €15 (that's trendy Bandol for you...)

2008 Bandol rouge (85% Mourvèdre) - light touches of coconut oak aromas and grainy texture, concentrated dark vs savoury fruit with tight grippy mouth-feel, subtle and still a little closed up vs developing meaty edges. Very good, promising too. €18

2009 Bandol rouge - meatier and more powerful with lovely rich black cherry with spicy savoury dark olive notes, firmer bigger palate with weighty finish vs attractively rounded tannins. A slightly more in-your-face vintage maybe but it’s still good stuff.

Bandol: Château Sainte-Anne

Château Sainte-Anne
from maisondesvins-bandol.com

As I mentioned in the post above, the ‘natural’ quirky Sainte-Anne style has been with us for a while: this 15 ha (37 acre) estate, lying on the northeastern side of the Bandol appellation in Sainte-Anne d’Evenos, has been farmed organically(+) for twenty years by larger than life owners Françoise and Jean-Baptiste Dutheil de la Rochere. ‘Natural’ in the sense of not much used, done or added in the vineyard and cellar - “very few treatments in the field…” and “no SO2, fining nor filtration (for red winemaking),” for example - apart from working the vines and soil, picking the grapes, fermenting them and watching over their ageing in barrels. Bit of a simplistic cliché maybe but they like to keep it nice and simple. I went to the property and interviewed Françoise back in 2004 and tasted quite a few blends and vintages of their red wines, and my memory was something like a rollercoaster road of discovery. Certain wines were very traditional and pretty awesome in that way, while one or two others were teetering on the brink or probably a little more rustic than you might like. Jean-Baptiste agreed, when I tried their latest vintages at Millésime Bio wine show in Montpellier (Languedoc) last week, that “our wines have always been a bit on the wild side.” Right on, man.

Here are my condensed notes from that aforementioned late autumn 2004 trip just to weave in a touch of background and detail, extracted from a load of other material for a paper (yawn) I was doing on Mourvèdre back in 2005/06, although I don’t imagine much has changed essentially at Ste-Anne.

Françoise told me she believes “the microclimate here comes from the usually cool nights we get from the end of August, meaning we are among the latest to pick Mourvèdre (coupled with a lower risk of rot, so they can chance it more).” Her Bandol vineyards are on the higher ground facing southwest, and the lower-lying areas are classified as Côtes de Provence. A protective circle is formed by a range of hills all the way round to Le Beausset and the terraces behind the vineyard. Sainte Anne has clay/limestone soils with veins of sand underneath meaning it’s better drained, a “less heavy soil favourable to elegant reds,” as she put it. Their organic/biodynamic methodology takes in growing wild mustard grass between the vine rows and only using fertilisers from organic matter (shite). This is a “very old family property going back five generations, so there’s plenty of old vine stock,” although escat (a disease attacking and causing the wood to die) is a problem here limiting their age. They don’t use trellising since “it’s not easy to do and Mourvèdre stands up well in gobelets (bush vines) anyway!” And something mystical too about “creating magnetism…” or whatever I scribbled down followed by a double question mark??

On picking Mourvèdre at the right moment: “When it’s perfectly ripe and you squeeze the grapes, it leaves finger marks because of its thick skins,” Françoise explained. Fruit for their Cuvée Collection is usually left a day or so longer, in specific plots, for extra ripeness. “No SO2 is used for white and rosé before fermentation and usually none at all for reds.” Typical winemaking ‘techniques’, as exemplified by the very good 2001 vintage, include a relatively short period in vat of 12-13 days with one remontage (pump-over) per day. “It needs a good aeration each day but no more than that, otherwise the must becomes too extracted.” The reds are matured for about 18 months in old 50 hl foudres (very large tuns) - in fact they don’t use any new wood at all - “just for slow oxidation.” Blending is done after cask-ageing “because of Mourvèdre’s richness, I leave it pure (until then).” The S-A basic cuvée is made up of 60% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache and 20% Cinsault. But her Cuvée Collection is typically 95-98% Mourvèdre selected by parcel (and slightly later picked) and isn’t made every year: 2003 and 2004 were looking likely at that time, none in 2002 as it was “too dilute,” 2001 and 2000 were both very good and 1999 was “unspectacular but well balanced.”

Click here to view my notes and reviews of those older vintages (goes to my mega-Bandol page in the "wine words" archive: scroll down quite a lot towards the bottom). There are more Ste-Anne wines here (Millésime Bio 2006) too.

And now, over to those ‘latest’ vintages tasted last week:

2010 Bandol white (Ugni Blanc, Clairette Verte) - oily honeyed nose and palate, quite full then becomes more mineral and elegant with crisp bite. Good. About €15.

2010 Bandol rosé (Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault) - quite developed with ripe raspberry fruit and rounded mouth-feel, lacks a bit of bite. Expensive too at €14.

2008 Bandol red (60% Mourvèdre) - nice ‘sweet’ black cherry with savoury black olive undertones, a hint of spice too with attractive tannins and subtle depth of fruit; 'lighter' more elegant style. €19

2005 Bandol red - developing savoury notes, richer chunkier firmer wine vs appealing maturing leather characters.

2006 Bandol Collection - more of that dark cherry fruit vs a wilder ‘animal’ side, solid gripping yet still rounded palate, it’s balanced and complex with it.

chateausteanne@free.fr, tel.: 04.94.90.35.40

New wine tours from Wine Voyages

Wine Education Service and Criterion Wine (both UK based) have teamed up to create an exciting new wine holiday company called Wine Voyages, with several tours planned from the end of May 2012 onwards. The first is a wine tour by coach to the wine & food mecca of Alsace country from 31 May to 5 June; and other scheduled trips include Champagne in July and November, Greece in September and Burgundy in November. Tours to more classic wine areas of Europe are also being put together, as well as further afield to e.g. California and South Africa.

To find out more, email info@winevoyages.co.uk or phone Sandy on 020 8991 8213 or Malcolm on 020 8991 8212. Full details are here:

wine-education-service.co.uk

Photo: Riquewihr in Alsace.

Millésime Bio 2012

Just returned from a day-and-a-half tasting my way around what appears to have become the biggest organic wine show in the world, Millésime Bio in Montpellier (the Languedoc's finest/only city). But it's still a nice down-to-earth user-friendly fair though, like the growers and winemakers themselves who were there showing their wares on a simple table so you can easily talk and taste. No flash stands, corporate bull or "ah, you haven't made an appointment?" attitudes.

Anyway, expect a few new winery "profiles" (I'll drop the FBI gag this time... oops there I go again with that silly/sad sense of humour) over the coming weeks focusing on people and wines fresh from Italy and Austria...

Millésime Bio 2012

Just returned from a day-and-a-half tasting my way around what appears to have become the biggest organic wine show in the world, Millésime Bio in Montpellier (the Languedoc's finest/only city). But it's still a nice down-to-earth user-friendly fair though, like the growers and winemakers themselves who were there showing their wares on a simple table so you can easily talk and taste. No flash stands, corporate bull or "ah, you haven't made an appointment?" attitudes.

Anyway, expect plenty of new winery "profiles" (I'll drop the FBI gag this time... oops there I go again with that silly/sad sense of humour) and updates over the coming weeks, focusing on people and wines fresh from the Roussillon, Languedoc, southern Rhone, Bandol and Corsica...

Chile: 'no way rosé!' part 3

Or my latest 'rosé of the mo' even: this tasty pinkie is part of the Co-Op's (UK) 'Fairtrade' range - that term makes a slight cynic like me slightly suspicious of the otherwise implied "we really stitch up our other 'non-fairtrade' wine suppliers," although the concept is commendable of course. It's sourced from Chile's Curicó Valley - I only kept the front label so don't know who made it - but, anyway, was £5.99 I think and is a Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend.

Languedoc: Château de la Negly, La Clape

Negly, with a sizeable 50 ha (125 acres) of vines surrounding its handsome yet workmanlike chateau, is owned by Jean-Paul Rosset, whose talented winemaker is Cyril Chamontin working with uber-consultant Claude Gros. Jean-Paul’s father used to grow grapes for the local co-op but he upped the quality stakes massively in vineyard and cellar from the mid 90s, and this is now one of the best estates on La Clape, out of quite a few very good ones it has to be said, if not the Languedoc (he types pushing the proverbial boat out). Their tasty reds age well too, as you'll see from my glowing notes on the 1998 'Falaise' below... I love what they cram into a glass, typical of that quintessential 'Clape' style showing concentrated warm ripe fruit with deliciously natural wilder edges (garrigue if you like, it's what the French call it) and heady Med 'sweet/savoury' mix. The first two were sampled and 'assessed' at a tasting in London a few months ago:

2008 La Falaise (Syrah Grenache Mourvèdre Carignan) - aromatic herby black cherry and liquorice notes, peppery and rich mouthful with powerful structured palate; lovely mix of concentrated fruit and firm chunky tannins, tight long finish too. Excellent. £17-£20 Thorman Hunt & Co, Bancroft Wines (London).

2007 La Porte du Ciel (15%) - dense dark colour, savoury maturing leather tones vs coconut oak vs very concentrated lush dark fruit, solid yet nicely textured tannins with very long powerful but balanced finish, still very much alive. Yum. €75 although apparently they only make a couple of hundred cases or so! Alexander Krossa Wines (based in the Languedoc selling mostly to Germany and a few other markets now as well e.g. the UK: profile on him with lots more wines to follow. I copied the photo off his site, by the way...)

1998 La Falaise – wow! That wild Clape nose comes through loud and clear, like burnt lavender plus lovely smoky mature fruit, delicious wine you just want to have more of... (tasted March 2011).


James Nicholson (Northern Ireland) also stocks a wide range of Negly wines including older vintages.

Languedoc: Gérard Bertrand 'Grand Vin' La Clape

UPDATE: One of the Bertrand empire's top reds, from his country wine estate and hotel lying up on the almost-island 'La Clape' sub-appellation nestling between Narbonne beach and Narbonne town, was up for tasting at a London show a few months ago (just rediscovered my notes...). It sells for about twenty quid in the UK, imported by Thierry's Wines, but it's pretty damn good virtually every vintage.

2008 Château l'Hospitalet Grand Vin (Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache) - complex wildflowers, herbs and berry fruits on the nose/palate, lush, concentrated mouthful vs still very firm tannins and powerful long finish, lovely lingering wild flavours too. Needs a few years to blossom, great stuff.

More GB on this blog:

Features, winery profiles and reviews from wine touring and tasting 2006-2008 (goes to "King of the Languedoc?" page in my "more wine words" archive).

2009 & 2008 Languedoc vintage tasting reports (also in "more wine words").

Limoux, La Clape, Corbières & Boutenac: April & May 2011, a trio of shorter posts on the Languedoc 2010 vintage showcase (including 2009s and 2008s revisited) by wine area / theme...

France: the Original Malbec

A little Vs-up to Argentina perhaps, where Malbec is thriving in certain places made by certain wineries; but this red variety did come from southwest France originally and is still very much alive in the Cahors region (some winemakers have even been replanting it in parts of the Bordeaux wine-lands). Rigal, a major Cahors producer and owned by the ever-expanding JeanJean group (link goes to a Languedoc feature on my other blog), has launched a tasty gutsy fruit-driven varietal Malbec (vin de pays du Lot, the name of the département and the long river that runs through it) called The Original Malbec (2010 vintage, 13% alcohol), which has lots of vibrant spicy character, nice weight, red/black berry fruits and dry yet rounded finish. Maybe a good Christmas-y "red of the mo" even... A Fiver on offer at Asda, usually over £7 I think.

Languedoc: Cave d'Embres et Castelmaure, Corbières

UPDATE: the brooding 2008 vintage of one of their top Corbières reds, called La Pompadou, is now available in the UK via Laithwaites / Direct Wines at £11.99. My impressions of it have been chiselled below, as well as a profile penned last year including a fascinating insight into why the bright hypnotic stripes, and notes on a few of their range sampled on that particular occasion. Here we go:

2008 La Pompadou (Carignan, Grenache) - perfumed blueberry aromas / flavours, quite tight and fresh mouth-feel with grip, power and concentration lurking underneath. Still seemed a bit young when I tasted it a few months ago, very good though.

The Embres & Castelmaure name evokes myth and legend, as a wonderful place lost in time yet one of the first co-op cellars (although much smaller than many) to understand what changes needed to be made to move forwards into the, perhaps inevitably and certainly very competitive, quality wine arena. This enchanting mediaeval village, or rather (later) merger of two villages, lying at the southern end of the Corbières, was where Patrick de Hoym de Marien, who's still the president, and MD Bernard Pueyo instigated a major rethink and replanting program in the 80s; as well as identifying and mapping out all vineyard plots owned by the co-op's 70 members. This thorough "back to basics" in the vineyards - proper pruning, tilling, controlling yields, selecting grapes etc. - was complemented by upgrading winemaking and ageing techniques and equipment, with timely advice from a few key consultants and culminating in building a brand new cellar opened in 2007.
By the way, I pinched the picture, with the loud coloured stripes featured on their labels, off their poetic website, where you'll also find some stunning pictures and tips for staying and eating in this lost corner of the Corbières (the "main road" to the village only goes to, erm, the village). I sampled these wines at the enigmatically named "Salon du X" - it's not that much of a mystery, actually, a tasting organised by their agent Xavier Peyrot des Gachons with a dozen Languedoc & Roussillon winegrowers present (there were originally 10 in his "gang", I think) hence the X - in April 2010 at Domaine Gayda's impressive winery & restaurant complex, found between Limoux and Castelnaudary.

2009 Corbières white (Grenache blanc, Macabeu) - juicy and zesty vs exotic banana fruit; nice depth and oily vs crisp mouth-feel. 85+
2008 La comporte du garage (barrel-fermented Grenache blanc) - a bit spicy wood dominated vs juicy and colourful fruit; lightly creamy and maturing notes vs a bit of zing on the finish. 85+
2009 rosé - attractive "boiled sweets" fruity style, crisp and zesty to finish. 80+
La Buvette (mostly  .Grenache + Carignan 14.5%) - light colour with lovely ripe soft raspberry and sweet liquorice notes; quite stocky actually with a light touch of tannin, nice easy style. 85
2008 Castelmaure (Carignan Grenache Syrah) - scented "garrigue" with vibrant blueberry and blackberry fruit; juicy lively palate with a bit of weight and grip, subtle lingering fruit. 87
2007 La Pompadou (Carignan Grenache Syrah) - enticing cassis and black cherry fruit with more depth and concentration and a hint of chocolate oak; appealing "sweet" vs perfumed vs chunky finish, again tasty and well-balanced. 88+
2007 Grande Cuvée (Grenache Syrah) - riper liquorice nose and spicier too; fairly lush texture with a tad more oak, attractive depth and grip vs quite concentrated with "sweet" vs dry finish. 89+


4 Route des Canelles, 11360 Embres & Castelmaure. 04 68 45 91 83 / www.castelmaure.com

Wine courses in the Belfast area (updated)

Wine Education Service, which runs consumer wine courses and tastings at various centres around the UK, and yours truly RMJ have teamed up to launch a new introductory evening wine course and a one day wine workshop. The five week course starts in April 2012 in Belfast City Centre and in Bangor (Co. Down), and the one day event is on Saturday 31 March in Belfast. Details as follows:

Belfast

1 day workshop "the World of Wine" on Saturday March 31: £75 per person including tasting approx 15 wines with tuition, lunch with wine and a course manual.

Oscar Wilde room, Ramada Encore Hotel, Saint Anne's Square, Belfast BT1 2LD. www.encorebelfast.co.uk

5 week introductory course Tuesday evenings starting 3 April until 1 May inclusive: £125 including half-a-dozen wines tasted each session, tuition and in-depth course material. At the Ramada as above.

Bangor

5 week introductory course Wednesday evenings starting in April: £125 including half-a-dozen wines tasted each session, tuition and in-depth course material. One day workshop and other wine tasting & food events possible - details to follow.

Upstairs @ the AVA vin café bar & grill, 132 Main Street, Bangor (opposite the rail station). www.theava.co.uk

More information and booking: www.wine-education-service.co.uk, tel: 020 8991 8213. Or email Richard James.

Languedoc: Domaine Gayda, pays d'Oc / Malepère

UPDATE: this quirky red, in the sense that you don't find much Cabernet Franc planted in the region and some growers / winemakers are getting interesting results from it, was tasted in London not so long ago...

2009 Figure Libre Cabernet Franc, IGP Pays d'Oc - leafy spicy nose, unusual 'inky' vs rich profile, nice tannins and pretty intense long finish. Good stuff and certainly different although again it's quite expensive at £16.99 (New Generation Wines, UK).

And this is what I said about Gayda (the winery rather than a device used by gay men to catch like-minded wavelengths...) and sampled in situ back in April 2010:

All the wines featured below are labelled up as Pays d'Oc (their winemaking policy) but, to help you pinpoint where to locate, in mind and on map, Domaine Gayda's impressive winery & restaurant complex (modern yet Mediterranean), it's found between Limoux and Castelnaudary just before the tiny village of Brugairolles (you can't miss it). Gayda is technically in the virtually unknown Malepère appellation, although, as I said, this isn't what motivates owners South African Anthony Record and Englishman Tim Ford's wine styles (Marc Kent of Boekenhoutskloof in the Cape is also listed as a "non-executive director," by the way). They bought the estate in 2003 with 11 hectares (27 acres) of vineyard circling the winery and another eight near La Liviniere in Minervois; plus they source grapes from other growers: e.g. in Tresserre, Opoul and Maury in the Roussillon; and Fontfroide in the Corbières. Their wines are sold by New Generation Wines in the UK, James Nicholson in Ireland, various importers in the US (see "where to buy" on their site, link below) and Sean Robson in Hong Kong. The premises are also used by British owned wine school Vin Ecole. I tasted these in April 2010 in situ:

2009 Sauvignon Blanc - nice towards New Zealand style with mix of ripe and exotic vs grassier side; pretty textbook zingy SB with a hint of class too. 85+
2009 Viognier - light peach and apricot with a touch of spice too; creamier mouth-feel with lees notes, aromatic crunchy yellow fruits with clean yet punchy finish. 85+
2007 Figure Libre Maccabeo - nutty oily and developed nose, toasty with "sweet" fruit too; lees-edged and mineral palate vs fair weight and nice nutty oily finish. 87
2009 Gayda rosé - attractive creamy vs red fruity style, crisp juicy and tasty. €6.50 85
2008 Gayda Syrah - attractive pure spicy black cherry aromas/flavours; juicy fruit with a bit of depth, a tad of oak and grip although nicely done. €6.50 87
2008 Figure Libre Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon - cassis and red pepper with spicy, "inky" and tobacco tones; lively and quite concentrated palate with tasty "sweet/savoury" finish, dry vs rounded texture. €14 87-89
2007 Chemin de Moscou (Grenache, Syrah etc. 14%) - showing more chocolate and coconut oak, although it's lush with dark fruit and appealing rounded tannins; powerful with fruity vs dry texture, perhaps lacks a bit of character but still good (although not value-wise at €19.50). 87
2005 Chemin de Moscou (14.5%) - maturing "sweet/savoury" nose, juicy and concentrated with solid mouth-feel and hints of coconut spice; firmly textured and powerful, still needs a couple of years or so to open up. 88-90

11300 Brugairolles. 04 68 31 64 14 / www.domainegayda.com.

Roussillon: Bugarach or until the end of the world...

Cue Edge style guitar strumming... remember the U2 song used for the soundtrack of that early-90s arty apocalyptic Wim Wenders movie? Well, I like a man with a sense of humour, and it makes a refreshing change to come across this Roussillon red in the cluttered wine world. As it says, translating from the back-label: "Inspired by the oldest legends, this Bugarach wine should survive the end of the world and help you get in touch with extraterrestrials. This wine will be at its peak in December 2012..." He's called Jean Pla (pic.) and is probably best known for the "resto-cave" he and his wife used to own in Maury, Le Pichenouille, which he sold this year to focus on his wine broking / making activities. I remember someone also once called him "the Godfather of Maury," with respek.
Bugarach is a tiny village found nearby in the Corbieres at the foot of the mystical 'upside-down' Bugarach peak, which for some reason will be spared next year's apocalypse according to some wise souls. Anyway, this wine is a 100% Grenache blend sourced from vineyards around St-Paul de Fenouillet where Jean lives, is available locally and in "Northern Europe" (a bit vague, see website link below) and in the US via the appropriately named  David Vincent Selection (remember the star of the original Invaders TV series?).

Cuvée Bugarach 2010 vin de pays des Côtes Catalanes, Jean Pla Sélection (Grenache, 14.5% alc); subtitled as "S'il n'en reste qu'un, je serais celui-la" = "If there's only one left, I'd be this one." 
Volatile "real cider" notes in that "natural" wild ferment / low sulphite winemaking style (I'm guessing), nice chunky palate vs rounded tannins with wild blackberry / cherry fruit, has a bit of oomph vs fresher bite, light touch of chocolate oak underneath with grainy texture, 'cidery' vs sweet fruit on the finish tinged with savoury black olive flavours too. €8
jeanplaselection.com

Posh Chablis @ M&S

Marks & Spencer has always had a reputation for good reliable Chablis in my book, usually expressing exactly what you’d expect and want from a nice bottle of Chabbers. And the latest vintages of their whole Chablis range didn’t disappoint (except one) when sampled at their London press tasting a few weeks ago. These 'steely' dry whites are made from 100% Chardonnay, as is all Chablis stating what might be b******* obvious for some perhaps, although producers haven’t always put this simple and nevertheless interesting fact on their back-labels. Classic ‘straightforward’ Chablis is usually unoaked; and the higher quality ‘Premier’ and ‘Grand Cru’ wines, sourced from certain specific vineyard sites, often see varying degrees of barrel ageing depending on how rich the wine is, the producer’s style or vintage quality. Mind you, they’re getting dearer though with no Chablis under a tenner at M&S nowadays (apart from the 'Petit' version, which I didn't try this time and have found OK but lacking substance in the past), although they do occasional promotions like everyone else of course!

2008 Chablis La Chablisienne (12.5% alc.) - classic creamy vs steely style, nice intense buttery fruit vs crisp bite and light lees edges; maturing oily vs still fresh finish. Good + : £10.99

2008 Organic Chablis Jean-Marc Brocard (12.5%) - from a biodynamically farmed vineyard where they use “medicinal plants against insects and diseases.” Deep coloured and fruity, has almost toasty edges with exotic buttery fruit vs very crisp bite and long lingering finish; quirky stuff but lovely with it. £14.99 170 stores.

2007 Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume Union des Viticulteurs de Chablis (12.5%) - quite rich and mature on the nose, subtle concentration of warm buttery fruit vs steely cut vs mature oily finish; fair class with elegant balance and length. Very good, drinking well now. £18 300 stores.

2008 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos Louis Moreau (13%) - richer and toastier profile, concentrated vs crisp mouth-feel; quite 'impressive' although perhaps trying too hard to be a white Burgundy from further south. £38 50 stores.

Languedoc: a tale of two Fitous...

Aka a couple of Fitou-esque updates from Domaine Jones and Cave de Mont Tauch, just for the sake of making the post title a touch catchier. There's also a theme to my stream-of-conscious word outpourings, as you'll gather if you read this post from August last year featuring Domaine Jones and her first vintage release wines. Katie used to work for the Mont Tauch co-op in marketing but is now a fully-fledged winegrower/maker, and has a few wee vineyard parcels in the Maury area and now a massive 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) in Tuchan in Fitou country (near where she lives) across the rocky Corbières border between Languedoc and Roussillon. The 2010 red tasting-noted below is hence her first vintage (although it says on her website that 2011 would be the first?!) from these particular mixed old vines, some of them 100 years and counting, which is looking good already. Katie's wines are also now available in the US via David Vincent Selection, in Sweden from Johan Lidby and at Bodaweinhaus and Weinhaus Gawron in Germany, so she has been busy.
Just for the hell of it, or to stir up a bit of mischief perhaps, I've slotted in a new (outside of France anyway) single-vineyard Fitou from Mont Tauch co-op winery (also from Tuchan) underneath, which was previously included in this post on some new southern French reds from M&S. Oh, and a little "local politics" might not go amiss here... Katie's partner used to be president of said co-op and has since reverted to quietly getting on with looking after his own vineyards in the area, although was unfortunately a victim of some spiteful jealous moron, allegedly, who decided to wreck one of these, presumably because of some former conflict over "policy". There's progress for you, just when most of France has finally woken up to real competition in the big bad wine world, down south, in certain co-op worlds at least rather than forward-thinking ones or estate wineries, your competitor/enemy is still your neighbour! Anyway, as always, let's let the wines do the talking, which are both good it has to be said in their different ways...

2010 Domaine Jones Fitou (Carignan, Grenache, Syrah; 14% alc): Sweet dark berry fruit and liquorice aromas with volatile edges, shows a light touch of chocolate/coffee oak adding grainy vs rounded texture, fair oomph vs attractive supple tannins, black fruits and subtle dark choc bitter twist. Drinking nicely already yet still structured and concentrated, ripe and rounded mouth-feel vs tarter blueberry fruit side. Quite dear at £20 but I understand she didn't make much at all, and it's good stuff for sure. Available on-line for UK delivery or see Katie's blog for other outlets: domainejones.blogspot.com.
And one of her latest red releases is featured here: 2012 Le Petit Train Syrah December 2013

2009 Fitou, Château de Montmal / Cave de Mont Tauch (Syrah, Grenache, Carignan; 13.5%): nice spicy black cherry and sweet liquorice vs smoky tobacco and volatile balsamic notes; powerful solid palate with tasty concentrated fruit, lush and lively with ripe maturing finish. Well-made attractive chunky style, a special-occasion red at the price: £12.99 M&S on-line only.
Previous MT wines and profile are here.

Germany: Reichsrat von Buhl "Grand Cru" tasting

Kirchenstück single vineyard

"Or 'Grosses Gewächs' tasting to be precise, although the German equivalent of 'Grand Cru' does sound more like a term of abuse than a term describing a first-rate vineyard site..." Sensational taste-off of Von Buhl's 2009 vs 2010 dry Rieslings, sublime 2010 sweet wines and "a little surprise" vintage from the past...

CLICK HERE to read the full works, which goes to the just added German section of my wine words pages where you'll also find these archive features brought across from "old" WineWriting.com:

Riesling Riesling & Riesling or "a couple of racy German tastings combined..."

Terrassen-Mosel: "Extreme vineyard walking, right-angle Rieslings & Mosel-side eating..."

Plus an "international Riesling review" and Lingenfelder's "Vineyard Creatures"...

Australia: Rhone / Med winter reds (up north anyway)

Following in the shadowy footsteps of a similarly themed post on my other blog called Southern French reds @ Marks & Spencer's, here's a trio of hearty Aus "reds of the mo", if you like, created from Rhone/Med grape varieties and recently shipped neatly onto the shelves of your nearest Marks & Spencer's (well, perhaps, as these two have limited distribution as you can see below) and Asda (added 28 Nov). Discovered at a recent M&S tasting at their HO in London (more recommended wines from that to follow), and the third one in my local Asda store...

2010 Hunter Valley Shiraz - Tyrrell's Wines (100% Shiraz, 13% alc.): odd nose at first turning into sweet cherry and spicy 'medicinal' notes, it's a little at sorts with itself on the palate (still youthful though) but finishes better in a fuller Crozes-Hermitage like way. £9.99 M&S 150 stores.

2008 Marananga Dam Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre - Torbeck, Barossa Valley (44% Grenache, 34% Mourvèdre and the rest Shiraz/Syrah; 13% alc.): rich ripe fruit with meaty edges on the nose, liquorice and pepper aromas/flavours too vs enticing tangier side; punchy and concentrated mouth-feel with attractive sweet/savoury style, then maturing yet still lively finish. Very good although quite pricey: £12.99 M&S 200 stores.
2009 Shiraz/Viognier (14%) - Zilzie Wines, SE Australia: Victoria based Zilzie does a straight Viognier white wine as well as this spicy aromatic red blend, following a bit of a fashion in Aus for adding a drop of white Viognier to red Shiraz/Syrah in the style of traditional northern Rhone reds such as Côte-Rôtie. I liked the not so full-on fruity style of this one with attractive black cherry and cassis hints, a spicy floral side to it too, as I said; nice rounded quite weighty palate with fairly soft tannins and just a hint of chocolate oak adding texture and aroma/flavour. £6 Asda on promotion (usually £10).

More GSM from Aus here.

Languedoc: Château de Caraguilhes, Corbières

UPDATE: the latest vintage release of one of their top Corbières reds, Solus 2009, crossed my tasting path a couple of months ago in London, which is available in the UK via Les Producteurs et Vignerons de France retailing for a wallet-thinning £16.99...

2009 Solus (60% Syrah, 25% Mourvèdre, 15% Carignan) - vibrant black cherry fruit with chocolate oak tones, structured palate still although has attractive texture with long spicy finish. Very good, needs a few months more to open up.

Click here for a glimpse of the 2010 Solus, an unfinished sample tasted in Montpellier six months ago. And read on for a profile of Caraguilhes with some previous vintages reviewed from 2006 to 2010...

Pierre Gabison, previously a shareholder in this vast picturesque estate and Pech-Latt, bought out Caraguilhes entirely in 2005 and has spent a fortune on restoring the chateau, looking at the sumptuous pictures on their website. He's also continuing a long-standing 'tradition' (true in this case) of organic farming and philosophy, apparently pioneered by the previous owner in the 50s and 60s, which was virtually unheard of back in the golden age of newfangled nasty synthetic sprays and fertilisers. The sizeable 100+ ha (250 acres) of vineyards have been organically certified since 1992, which must be hard work. They lie on pretty rolling hills at slight altitude (up to 180m / 550 feet) surrounded by huge tracts of forest and scrubland, in the middle of nowhere: it's about 30 km (20 miles) from the sea, 15km south of Lézignan and 25 km southwest of Narbonne. Pierre's team includes young Etienne Besancenot, the new-ish "technical director" (senior winemaker I guess in "Anglo-Saxon" speak, as the French love to say as a put-down) who I first bumped into at Chateau de Pibarnon in Bandol back in 2004 (he was working the vintage as part of his studies); and Bruno Averseng in the field, literally.

I tasted these wines at Millésime Bio 2009 in Montpellier:

2008 Domaine de l'Olivette Vin de Pays des Coteaux de la Cabrerisse (Grenache blanc, Marsanne) - nice crisp zesty style with floral and honeyed aromas / flavours. 80-85
2008 Caraguilhes white Corbières (Grenache blanc & Marsanne) - more intense with enticing citrus, honey and exotic fruits; crisp bite and length on the palate. 87
2008 Corbières rosé (50/50 Grenache & Syrah) - delicious, juicy and zesty rose petal and red fruit cocktail; quite big mouth-feel then very crisp to finish. 87+
2007 red Corbières (Carignan Syrah Grenache Mourvèdre) - attractive crunchy cassis and blueberry fruit; very vibrant and tasty with firm v fruity finish. 87+
2007 Solus Corbières (Carignan Grenache Syrah) - richer and more concentrated with a touch of chocolate oak texture, but it's mostly the lush v crunchy fruit that shines through; solid firm tannins countered by lots of liquorice and black cherry. Very nice. 90-92
2005 Prestige Corbières (Carignan Syrah Grenache) - oilier aromas and texture with maturing edges, still quite firm and dry with a touch of wood on the palate; big mouth-feel although has some rich dark fruit underneath, less seductive perhaps. 87+

Update: I paid Etienne a visit in late January 2010 and hence had the opportunity to tread some of the soil on this sizeable and handsome estate, found up a track off the main road between Thézan and St-Laurent. He's been overseeing a bit of ripping up and replanting including some Carignan, which is quite rare nowadays as most people only seem interested in (re)planting Syrah and Grenache. Etienne's pretty excited at being at the helm at Caraguilhes as he thinks "there's huge potential here." We tasted the latest vintages and a couple of experimental wines, which certainly confirm this:
2008 white (60% Marsanne + Grenache blanc) - quite exotic and rich with floral apricot and banana aromas underlined by yeast-lees notes; full and rounded vs crisp biter twist, nice clean vs fruity finish. 87
2008 Grenache blanc (barrel-fermented) - rounded and "sweet" mouthfeel vs quite crisp, vanilla notes but not too toasty overall; perhaps needs more bite and fat, although it's an interesting experiment.
2008 rosé (Syrah Grenache Carignan 13.5%) - very appealing strawberry / raspberry on the nose; weighty / oily palate then refreshing finish. Yum. UK: Waitrose stores. 87
2007 classique red - wilder "garrigue" tones vs very spicy black cherry fruit, ripe liquorice aromas too; quite concentrated with dry vs rounded tannins and lovely fruit too. Waitrose 88+
2007 prestige red (Grenache Syrah Mourvèdre) - more complex nose with its almost animal, meaty and savoury tones; less open on the palate, but it's a more exciting wine underneath showing subtle spicy finish; less charm now but give it a year or two. 89-91
2008 Solus red (more Mourvèdre and Syrah, less Grenache; cask sample) - estery aromas with wild black fruits; quite vanilla-coated adding "sweetness" countered by lovely depth of fruit, again good balance of dry and firm mouthfeel vs lush and ripe; carries the 15% weight well as it's surprisingly elegant and not overworked, finishing with tight bite. Needs 1 to 2 years to round out. 90-92
Caraguilhes reds are priced €6.90, €9.90 and €15 cellar door.

And previously at Millésime Bio organic wine fair in 2006:
2005 Corbières rosé - very appealing strawberry fruit and weight, then fresh crisp and long. 87+
2004 Corbières rouge - nice depth of youthful cherry fruit with tobacco edges, well handled tannins on the finish. 88-90

11220 Saint Laurent de la Cabrerisse. Tel: 04 68 27 88 99, www.caraguilhes.fr

Roussillon: Domaine of the Bee update

Click here for profile and note on the 2007 vintage of their sumptuous old Grenache and Carignan based red and see below for my impressions of the recently released 2009. Other news includes their 2008 vintage now being available in the US via a distributor who sells in 35 states. More details are on their website domaineofthebee.com under 'Order your wine' then select USA, obviously!

There's a special offer running at the moment too "at the Domaine of the Bee shop," as the blurb goes. Use this code £10NOV2011 and they'll "take a tenner off your bill." One bottle is usually a somewhat pricey £27.95 delivered (£20 single bottle price + £7.95 p+p) so that makes it £17.95. The price does come down as the quantity goes up, here's the maths in a nutshell: 3 bottles = £60 + £7.95 minus £10 = £57.95, or 6 bottles = £108 + £7.95 minus £10 = £105.95, for example. The catch is it's limited to the first 50 people who order and is valid until Sunday 27th November (UK deliveries only). Enough of the sales pitch, you might well be saying (I don't have shares in the Bee incidentally), although you could combine this offer with the charity row (as in boat not argument...) Justin, whose father died of prostate cancer last year, is just about to do in aid of that cause. In their words: "Amanda, Philippe and I have decided to help raise funds by donating £10 to the charity for every 6 bottle case of Domaine of the Bee we sell before 20th November."

Now over to that new-release wine:

2009 Domaine of the Bee IGP Côtes Catalanes (15%) - touches of coconut oak but not too much adding texture and roundness to its ripe tannins and fruit, offering up sweet liquorice and blackberry flavours; powerful mouthful although that 15% alc. is surprisingly well hidden among its concentrated lush black fruit and damson mix with nice peppery edges too; attractive soft tannins vs light bitter chocolate twist and subtle dry grip, this is drinking nicely already actually.

Undiscovered Spain: Castilla y León

"Home-cured acorn-fed Iberian Black Pig

with La Setera wines"

by Brett Jones

I've just resurrected this tasting & touring feature originally published on "old" WineWriting.com and now here for the first time, as it seemed like a good idea:

"Undiscovered Spain - from Valladolid to the Portuguese border and north beyond León..." Featuring the following Bodegas with restaurant and hotel tips: Pilcar (Cigales region), La Setera (Arribes del Duero), Cenit (Tierra del Vino de Zamora), Zamoranas, Otero (Valles de Benavente), Agribergidum (Bierzo), Margon (Tierra de León) plus get to know your Juan Garcia, Prieto Picudo, Mencía and Godello; grape varieties, that is... "The vast evocative Castilla & León region, which lies roughly between Madrid and the north coast stretching almost from Rioja across to Galicia and Portugal, isn't exactly 'undiscovered' for Spanish wine lovers at least. Hip Ribera del Duero needs little introduction and other areas such as Toro and Rueda, which are found to the east, south and west of Valladolid, appear to have gained some ground in the recognition stakes. But on this tour, we travelled resolutely west..."

Read the full works here (goes to 'SPAIN' wine words archive - scroll down to below Cava guide). Big ham photo © Brett Jones "the Wine Maestro": thewinemaestro.co.uk. More pics in the article and on shutterfly.com.

Spotlight on Sicily: updated

From www.cantinaottoventi.it

I've now slipped nine fuller winery profiles of some of the producers and wines extracted from an earlier article "Spotlight on Sicilian wines" into my increasingly huge ITALY archive (click there). These snapshots complement, with a few nice photos too, this tasting feature already teleported across from "old" WineWriting.com, where you'll also find more reviews and generic info. Includes these exciting wineries: Brugnano, Ceuso, Cristo Campobello, Casa Grazia, Limonio, Murgo, Ottoventi, Mimmo Paone, Santa Anastasia...