Agree completely w/regard to La Roque and d’Oupia! The La Roques aren’t too far to the modern for my tastes, though I can see why they are for some. Also agree with Marshall’s comments re: Kermit Lynch’s wines.
Cheers,
geo
Dan Kravitz @ Hand Picked Selections brings this one into the eastern half of the US~Good stuff, as is most of his portfolio.
Cheers,
geo
Bump. I know. I’m incorrigible. But the bump and grind is totally justified.
As promised, I’m making my way through some of this list. I posted a couple videos of a tasting of La Negly. Jeffrey Davies, who was very involved since the beginning, Claude Gros who makes the wine, and Vladimir Volkov from Vinoterra in Russia, all sit around tasting la Negly, talking about its history and about the Languedoc in foreign markets. Pretty interesting stuff for the berserking community.
Part 1 la negly and domaine boede
Part 2 la negly
I was super impressed with l’Ancely which gets way less press than truffiers.
I drink Languedoc wines quite often. There are some good specialist wine merchants here in Belgium, one of whom is constantly making new discoveries. Here are some of my favourites.
Mas Jullien - Real finesse with good typicity. The top cuvées age well; I had a sublime 89 Cailloutis (now merged with Depierre) about a year ago. Reasonable prices topping at about €25.
Clos Marie - Harmonious wines not lacking in power.
Mas de Daumas Gassac - Were very fine Bordeaux ringers in the 80s. I haven’t kept up to date. Owner Aimé Guibert is a real personality. Expensive.
Domaine de Peyre Rose - Massive Syrah dominated wines which see no new oak and need time. Controversial. Many accuse them of spoofulation in spite of owner Marlène Soria’s low manipulation policy. Expensive >€50.
Jean-Michel Alquier (Faugères) - Some of the most elegant wines in Languedoc. Reds mainly Syrah based and close to Côte Rôtie type harmony and flavours than any others in the region. Very deft use of wood.
Aupilhac - Very nice wines which age well. There is a fascinating 100% Carignan cuvée.
La Grange de Pères - Powerful and concentrated Syrah/Cabernet with real class. Expensive >€50.
Prieuré de Saint-Jean de Bébian - I recently opened an excellent 1989 but there have been two ownership changes since then and some claim that they have been on a downward slope since the mid-90s.
L’Aiguelière - Impressive but bombastic wines in the 90s but recently opened bottles have absorbed their oak and have become harmonious. Recent reports point downwards.
La Voulte-Gasparets (Corbières) - Highly regarded but I have found too much wood patina on their top cuvées. However their basic Corbières (<€5) is stunning QPR at the Carrefour supermarkets.
I have also had very good bottles from Mas Champart, Ch.de Négly, Léon Barral, Canet Valette, Alain Chabanon (negative reports of style change from 2006), Mouscaillo (stunningly mineral Chard), Oustal Blanc (expensive), Mas Bruguière, Clos Centeilles, Saint-Antonin and others who don’t leap to mind.
The whites at Mas Jullien, Alquier, Grange des Pères are also outstanding.
Nearby Roussillon is another style and ball-game (richer and more hedonistic) with several outstanding producers.
I don’t know about availability in the USA of any of the above.
Thrilled to see so many posts on Languedoc. While there’s a ton of juice made there, much of what makes it to the U.S. is very good, some even great. My experience with this area has been one of excitement-it’s one of the most dynamic, emerging regions for French value, many with more of a New World palate than most other from France. Some of the producers that have impressed me the most include Hecht & Bannier’s Cotes du Rousillon, Yanneck Pelletier’s “L’engoulevent” from Saint Chinian and Mas du Soleilla’s lineup (fair warning-I carry these).
I haven’t struck as much gold with whites from the area, so this thread has certainly proven helpful to me.
Thought that I was drinking a lot of this, but a look at my list shows only a few-
reds with great QPR:
2006 Puydeval, v. nice
Château d’Oupia '07 great!
Bila Haut Occultum Lapidem '06 great, '08 quite young (but promising)
dessert wines:
Mas Amiel Cuvée Speciale 9 years OK, not great
Mas Amiel Muscat MA 2005 very nice indeed
Bump. I’ve been interested in Languedoc as a source of reasonably priced Mourvedre. (Just bought some Ch. Serame Minervois with 50% Mourvedre on the cheap.) Wondered if there was a Languedoc thread–and here it is.
Interesting to see the La Roque comments–basically exactly what I found. Modern and clean, but not getting spoofy, though not exactly going to scratch an itch for rusticity, either.
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2007 Château La Roque Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup Cuvée les vieilles vignes de Mourvedre - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup (7/24/2010)
Opened at cellar temp, opened up in decanter. Nose eventually had some spice, berry, gamy funk and milk chocolate. Balanced palate with smooth tannin that creeps into the mid-palate and freshening acidity. Currants (red and black) with iron/minerality. Layered wine, nice finish. As before–elegant and modern with plenty of character at the same time. There’s some oak here, but it’s tidily woven into the wine. (90 pts.) -
2007 Château La Roque Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup (5/29/2010)
This is really good, great QPR. Bouquet of cassis, blueberry, smoked meat, game, garrigue, mint and subtle oak nuances. Essentially a ripely fruited medium bodied wine. Spot on balance in terms of texture, acid and tannin. Long finish with a hint of dried herbs, chocolate and mint really does it for me. It’s fairly modern and clean, but also has that classic French complexity and balance. Has the polish and balance of a wine that could cost double the price. (90 pts.) -
2007 Château La Roque Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup Cuvée les vieilles vignes de Mourvedre - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Coteaux du Languedoc Pic St. Loup (3/26/2010)
Delicious! Nose is all blueberry, blackberry and chocolate. But in typical French Kermit Lynch import fashion the palate has an earthier, iron tinged edge to turn about 90 degrees from the fruit bomb direction. Excellent mouthfeel, nice weight, great finish. Balance, balance, balance! Modern and clean, yet true to its origins and varietal.
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There are quite a few available here in Germany.
Some of the very best:
Mas Jullien
Ch. de Negly Falaise, with the special cuvees Port du Ciel and Clos des Truffieres
L´Aigueliere Cote Dorée und Cote Rousse
Peyre Rose Syrah Leone und Clos des Cistes
Clavel Copa Santa
Prieure Saint-Jean de Bebian
Melissa, send me a PM with a couple of links to retailers you can easily buy from and I can probably point you towards a few good deals.
I’m no particular fan of Languedoc wines (generally speaking) but I’m starting to investigate a bit more and have found a couple to my liking. I’d say that the “minefield” descriptor is quite apt, due to several influences. I’m not sure there’s another place in France with such a wide range of winemaking techniques, from the ultra-industrial jug wine stuff to extremely traditional stuff, with a majority of interventionists (commercial yeasts, focus on ripeness and oak) and quite a few traditionalists. This region has been forgotten for years and years, falling on the wayside and having been pretty much taken over by high yield plonk. It actually took the region ages to recover from this, with the consequence that it was one of the only places in France in the 1990s with a) vineyards for sale and b) affordable land prices. This lead to a strong rebirth fueled by people who wanted to live their own dream but hadn’t inherited a vineyard, creating a feeling of freedom and experimentation. This is why you’re likely to find widely different stuff on the market, even from the same appellation: there’s no strong link with the past as can be the case in other regions (or at least not quite as strong in many cases).
Truth be told, it became a haven for spoofilated wines that immediately received high scores from critics… it’s very possible to taste 100 wines in the same day, all scoring 90+, all costing 15-20 euros, and all tasting exactly the same. It would be as if you had hundreds of soda producers, all doing their own version of Coca-Cola (hey! that’s what people like!). They found two easy markets: the nearby, widely expanding college town of Montpellier, as well as other people all over France getting into wine who wanted to drink something hip (= not something from their parents’ cellar).
I’ve tasted across the range, but never in depth unfortunately. I could never wrap my head around the extremely high prices of top producers like Negly or Grange des Peres. But with 20 euros in my pocket and a bit of perseverance I can find great stuff for my tastes (Chabanon being my current go-to producer).
I am not an expert in Languedoc/Roussillon wines, but I must say I quite liked 2007 Domaine Gauby (the midlevel wine at 24€, the the Muntada) we tasted a few weeks ago, especially compared to a 2007 Las Flors de la Peira (which was way too heavy and overextracted to my liking).
All very interesting. Am a big Languedoc fan, like Tim York my internet buddy. Not a lot of choice here in Ab but I keep looking. Will drink anything that appears on the shelves here!
If mentioning Gauby, Faugeres, Corbieres, Minervois etc.:
I thought we are talking about Languedoc?
Gauby is Roussillion, south-west, if you mean all wines from the Midi, that´s another matter.
This is a difficult question due to the very unclear definition of Languedoc… which used to go all the way to Toulouse at some point in time.
Administratively the Languedoc-Roussillon region covers Lozère, Gard (e.g. Costières de Nîmes), Hérault (what most people think of as Languedoc), Aude (Minervois, Corbières) and Pyrénées-Orientales (Roussillon).
In wine terms, in that area, everything that isn’t strictly speaking in Roussillon (Côtes du Roussillon, Collioure, Rivesaltes, Maury and Banyuls) is in Languedoc, although some vineyards in Gard are part of the Southern Rhône wine area due to proximity (e.g. Tavel or Lirac).
Therefore Gauby is indeed in Roussillon, but Faugères and Minervois are definitely in Languedoc, and Corbières would be considered borderline by most (south of the Narbonne-Carcassonne line) although technically fully in Languedoc.
WINE-WISE it is an easy question: AOC Coteaux du Languedoc - I don´t think we are talking politically!
Not that easy, actually. The regional AOC is a lot bigger than simply Coteaux du Languedoc (which is now called AOC Languedoc, creating further confusion), and includes e.g. Minervois or Corbières. Check e.g. http://www.languedoc-wines.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (apparently in French only).
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I was waiting til someone mentioned these two estates. Impossible to get in the USA and by far the best estates in the Languedoc. Garagiste offered some 2003 Peyre Rose, actually three cuvees, as there is a new one now. I missed it but I forced a friend to buy a bottle. Big, intense, structured wines, but offering unreal complexity and terroir expression. I have never tasted anything better for my palate. '98 Clos des Cistes remains an all time wine for me.
Bebian is brilliant too but my sample size is smaller.
OK - I’m paying attention. As soon as they’re available here — I’ll pay more attention!
Until then … zzzzzz
I find the hunt one of the funnest parts. I’ll be in Germany next week and Ill be looking since Robert Sand, the guy who posted is in Germany it seems, i’ll be on the hunt for Peyre Rose. Should be cheaper than Rimmerman’s offer too as I’ll be closer to the source. I doubt I’ll find it.
Weinhaus Porn in Bernkastel is one of my favorite wine stores in the world. All German and you can open a bottle and sit down at tables in the store and drink it. I always buy stuff I cannot get here. My only rule of overseas wine buying for myself. That is also the only things I drink when I travel in Europe, if at a restaurant. I just won’t order something that I can get here, even if at an attractive price, as life is short, and want to try as much as possible.
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