I admit being a real fan of wines from south-western France since many years. It all started with the discovery of some ENORMEOUS Malbec from Cahors, some COSMIC wines from Jurançon and some fine wines from Madiran, full of character. All of them were complex, juicy and atypical, showing astonishing ageing capacity, as well as wonderful “drinkability” in their youth. Just great wines. Since then, I often thought that wines and tastes might be divided into “France” and “South-West”.

A couple of days ago, I stumbled over a bottle from Pascal Verhaeghe of Château du Cèdre in Cahors, that I never tasted before: Le Cèdre Héritage 2010, a sweet Côtes de Gascogne made from 100% of Gros Manseng. And, does the wine taste as curious as the label? I’d rather say, yes. The dark shiny, straw coloured wine promises a lot of power, and its nose is indeed very intense, but far from being overloaded: dried flower and hay, walnuts, vanilla and honey. Promising. But the wine is surprisingly light on the palate, with comfortable mouth feel, slight mellowness and moderate acidity. Fresh apples and pears dominate the flavours, but leaving enough space for (fresh) flowers and honey to express. A very pleasant wine, you would open without hesitating for an aperitif, or serve on warm apple pie and pancakes with caramelized apples and hazelnuts.

You see, light, pleasant, easy-drinking wines… they also exist in south-western France.

I can’t say that I prefer single varietal wines to cuvees, or vice-versa, but from time to time I appreciate listening to a grape varieties revealing their very own version of a particular terroir. Here we are talking about the 2008 vintage and a centenary Carignan vineyard, growing on a dry and stony terroir called “Les Aspres”, in the Minervois close to Carcassonne.

“In the Languedoc-Roussillon, the biggest wine growing region of France, the 2008 vintage, with its “Indian summer” is very promising,” François Boudou, director of the ICV, a regional wine institute, estimated some five years ago

With its fresh and rainy spring and its warm autumn full of sunshine, the Mediterranean wines of this vintage are considered as being “atypical” and elegant, carried by crispy acidity.

The bouquet of this Carignan is very intensive. First dominated by Hazelnut and raisins, it quickly gains complexity in the glass, showing smells of plums and gingerbread. Particularly smooth and mellow on the palate, it’s a very pleasant drink. Silky tannins underline the crispy acidity on the final, giving impressive length to the wine. It demands for typical winter dishes, for example patiently stewed meat with elegant spices like star anise, cinnamon and cloves.

Concerning Hubert Soreau, I can confirm that he is as meticulous as a goldsmith for the production of his champagne Clos l’Abbé. His Chardonnay grapes grow in three small lots of the historic Clos l’Abbé near Épernay (once the oldest walled or enclosed vineyards of Champagne, as old documents confirm that it was already planted with grape vines in the ninth century). Personally, I love Chardonnay. It always comes up with surprises, presenting unexpected tastes and fragrances to my palate. It can be subtle and discreet, thick and lazy, powerful or delicate, have aromas of butter, lemon, blossoms and vanille, be mineral or juicy… So maybe I’d better write in plural and say that « I like ChardonnayS ». Obviously there are also perfectly boring Chardonnay wines on the marked, as it’s not a MAGIC grape variety that automatically makes great wines. You have to treat it with a certain respect, so it gives us a wine well worthy of its name.

In Hubert’s vineyards and cellar this is indeed the case: « Chablis style » pruning, no herbicides, hand picked grapes, whole bunch pressing in vertical press, fermenting in oak barrels, bottle fermentation (prise de mousse) the traditional way with natural cork… And at least three years of bottle ripening before Hubert starts to think about bringing the wines back up from the cellar.

The last « tirage » of the Clos l’Abbé (the still, non sparkling wines of the last vintage are bottles for the second fermentation) took place in April. An excellent occasion to get an older bottle from the cellar and give it a taste!

It looks great in the glass: pale, shiny and golden colored, small bubbles regularly rising to the surface. Its almost ruminant… By the way, I poured it into a wine glass and not into a champagne flute. The latter is perfectly adapted to sparkling wines that want to emphasize the splendor of their bubbles. But its far to small and tight for wines with a complexe bouquet. Those wines deserve better, they need space!

The Clos l’Abbé gratefully fills the entire space I’ve offered to him with the smell of ripe peaches and pears, as well as with aromas of hazelnut and butter. After a little while the wine has opened up a little, adding white pepper and dried apricots to its bouquet. Despite the fact that my nose would love to hang on a little longer, my palate insists to taste and drink at last. The straight minerality of the wine surprises at first, but it rapidly melts away amongst the mellow and smooth mouthfeel. The fine bubbles are perfectly integrated, and delicate fragrances of almonds and blossoms enrich the aromatic final. 

Tasting this Champagne, its easy to understand the meaning of the French dictum that « a Champagne can accompany a whole banquet, from the amuse bouche to dessert ». Let’s think about it: I would serve the Clos l’Abbé without anything for an aperitif and prepare a rabbit terrine with coriander and pistachio for a starter. For the main course I could imagine fish filet with white pepper and vanilla, served with some creamy polenta, followed by some young parmesan cheese. Finish on a « Paris-Brest », a traditional French choux pastry with praline flavoured cream.

Convinced?

Jeb Dunnuck’s visit to the domaine in August (he succeeds to Robert Parker in the Rhône Valley), was a perfect occasion for a tasting to review the two past vintages. Confident regarding the quality of the 2011 vintage already bottled, Jeb Dunnuck particularly liked the 2012 wines still in vats, calling them «excellent». 

Amongst the wines tasted, we would like to point out the cuvée Habamus Papam 2012 (Châteauneuf du Pape). It’s our third vintage on the terroir called «Saintes Vièrges», but blended for the first time with grapes coming from the vineyards in La Crau and La Font du Pape we purchased earlier that year. Thus 2012 is the firs sizable vintage of this wine, which might enable us to satisfy increasing demands for this cuvée.

Dominated by the vivid fruitiness of the Grenache, the blend of 3 large vats surprised on the nose by its powerful and fresh bouquet. Syrah came up slowly, adding delicate smells of prunes and a large quantity of spices to the bouquet: Pepper, star anise, a hint of clove, as well as some dark olives. Subtle and elegant woody characters temporarily showed up and perfectly intermingled with the bouquet. A beautiful, harmonious nose, showing remarkable complexity. On the palate, the wine is dominated by succulent and juicy red fruits, underlined by mineral acidity and well structured tannins. 

This white wine is being “published” under the AOC Minervois label. It’s made from a majority of Grenache blanc and Vermentino grapes, complemented by Picpoul blanc and gris, Grenache gris and a little Muscat.

The quite intense bouquet, pure and mineral, shows pleasant aromas of citrus fruits and fennel. On the straight and medium-bodied palate, the mineral character fully developes through a clear and crystalline acidity and a surprising saltiness, while the citrus fruit aromas are divided into lemon and grape fruit. Both smooth and well structured by the acidity, this wine shows a rather “northern” character with quite a lot of power. Appreciate this wine for an aperitif, on shellfish and other fish, as well as on grilled vegetables.

You may know a different name for this type of wine: Ratafia, Floc de Gascogne, Pineau des Charentes...
What do they all have in common? They are all so-called liquor-wines (vins de liqueur), traditionally called “Mistelles” in France, made from fresh grape must. Different regions, different names but a common tradition: Prevent the must from fermenting by adding brandy or pure alcohol (up to 16 %vol - 22% vol.) to the fresh must.

Thereafter, the fortified must is laid to rest in big glass bottles or in oak barrels for several weeks, months or even years. In fact, these types of wines sometimes show an amazing aging capacity. I had this experience only a few weeks ago, when a friend told me to come over for a tasting of a long-forgotten bottle of his cellar. The label was completely gone, but he knew that it had been there for at least 16 years. Besides the syrupy, golden and amber coloured aspect of the wine, the real surprise came up when I plunged my nose into the complex bouquet of the wine: heaps of fresh mirabelle, delicate fragrances of white flowers, acacia honey, some dried apricots, as well as raisins and rum…

Though, thick and full-bodied on the palate, it showed astonishingly crispy acidity, that carried the well known aromas of the nose, enriched by some sweet oak flavours, towards a very long final. A genuine taste bomb! A wine to savour on its own or together with some noble products, like chocolate, a Tarte Tatin, blue cheese or cigars.

Still having the after-taste of the wine in my mouth, I can only regret the loss of the tradition of making liquor wines in France, as not that long ago, almost every cellar produced these wines as a by-product. So if you are amongst the happy-ones, who still have some old and forgotten Ratafia or Cartagene in your cellar, be sure to plan a tasting with some good wine loving friends soon!

These days, we drink less and less old and ripe wines . A study of the Wine Enthusiast in 2011 showed that “the vast majority—something like 90% or more—of wine purchased in this country (USA) is being consumed within 48 hours after purchasing”. You are right, this study is about the US wine market, but wine-drinking behaviour might be similar in all western countries.

In any case, there is always something exciting about opening an old bottle of wine you somehow forgot in the cellar. Even more, if it’s a bottle made from old grape varieties, that not so long ago had a reputation of being “unworthy” and “bad” . For more than a decade old grape varieties, have proven their quality in this cuvee called “Les Mal Aimés” (The unbeloved).

As expected, the wine shows a light orange-red colour and a slight depot. The nose is rather intense and complex, with smells of plums, smoke and herbs, as well as some spices and light fragrance of elder blossoms. Smooth on the palate, still with crispy acidity and velvety tannins coating the palate. Generous as a 2003 wine should be, it finishes on savoury stewed black fruits. A wine you should taste in silence, late at night…

A scream you can hear all over the world, several times a century. But there are two places where these words have a particular weight: Rome and Avignon.
“We have a pope!”

I think, that after ten years of search, patience and willpower, Yves Gras and his estate Santa Duc might have screamed these same words too. Because there certainly are not many places where it is as difficult to become owner of vineyards as in Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

From the acquisition of his first vineyard, during the time he adapted cultivation and until the first excellent harvest in 2010 - he never revealed the secret. Patiently and silent he gave time to the wine to ripen, and baptized it “Habemus Papam” in a secret family conclave. 1,2 hectares of wine on the sandy soils close to “La Font du Loup”, one of the most famous terrois close to Courthézon. The finesse of the sand reflects in the supple texture of the tannins, while protection of the grapes from too much heat and sunlight gave a subtle bouquet to the wine. All of Yves Gras know-how in the heart of the worlds most famous appellation. Really a great bottle of wine!