All posts filed under: Languedoc

Manouches, Zelig-Caravent

Published by Juel

    Tonight my friend from Agde and my travelling days (from a time when you could walk through customs with a corkscrew, wine bottle and shoes intact) bought me a wine from around his area in Languedoc. The wine is called Manouches. Quite by chance, my friend says. Then it is a wonderful coincidence: Manouches also means gypsy. But it means more than that. The word has an association with Django and jazz – “Perhaps because Django was a Manouche, and ‘gypsy-jazz’ music is so accociated with Paris & France, the word has become synonymous with gypsy-jazz guitar.” Djangology.net The wine has the intense pure blue fruit common to natural wines but it also has a dark shadow (non-fruit) that follows the bright midday sun (fruit): thyme and nuttiness (hazelnut). I like the Languedoc when it is like this: breaking the rules. It is a platinum gypsy: an unusual blend of 70% Alicante Bouschet and the rest Cinsault. Image: Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Countessa.

2011 – Natural Wine

Published by Juel

I said fate plays a game without a score, and who needs fish if you’ve got caviar? …When I loved, I loved deeply.  It wasn’t often. Josef Brodsky Was 2011 a good year for wine? When I look through my red moleskine notebook, I would say overall, yes – and there were certain trends. Here are my reflections on wine in 2011 featuring key wines that sum the year up for me. Natural Wine: 7 Rue de la Pompe, Mas Coutelou When I hear the word “should” I calmly pick up my bag, grab my coat, take off my heels, find the nearest exit and run for my life. Even if a Natural Wine is the nicest wine in the world, nothing irritates me more than to be told what I should or should not think (or drink).  Despite being embraced by some parts of the industry, natural/organic/biodynamic wine still divides people. Natural wine is not a sommeliers friend (although it is loved by sommeliers) and it is here where you see ideology bang up against practicality.

Outside the law: Burgundians Anne Gros and Jean-Paul Tollot’s “Table Wine” from Minervois

Published by Juel

It’s as if these two winemakers from Burgundy have run away to the South of France and created something great for the village party. The name of the wine, La 50/50, refers to the winemakers partnership rather than the blend and Anne Gros asks on her website, “Is it love at first sight? Absolutely!” There’s a sunny joyousness about this wine from the Languedoc and a sort of recklessness

Languedoc Seduction: Domaine Peyre Rose Clos des Cistes 2002

Published by Juel

Winemaker Marlene Soria has achieved a grand clandestine moment with 2002 Peyre Rose Clos des Cistes. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this wine is not the dramatic Mediterranean garrigue character, nor the resolutely non-berry style of the dark rose and golden figs, leather and slight bay-leaf menthol. It is the fleshiness given to this powerful, idiosyncratic voice from the South of France: a region where a lot of voices have yet to find out what they exactly want to say. Compelled to find out more, I learned Soria stopped shipping to the US soon after gaining recognition in Wine Spectator as well as dumping the three previous vintages (1999, 2000, 2001) with the local wine co-operative due to taint from faulty enamel tanks. This, for a wine that easily commands over £60 a bottle. I questioned whether I should write about the vinous equivalent of a one-night stand, one that you and I may never see again (it is found in the UK in seriously low quantities). Yet, weeks later, its mysterious voice and …

Late Night Sessions: Pic St Loup, Bergerie de l’Hortus, Languedoc 2008

Published by Juel

Home: Wolf Mountain, Mediterranean Translation: Pic-St-Loup, South of France Sound: Pick the Wolf, Howling Honest: yes Satisfying: yes Traditional: A little Need to eat: No Not for: Thin Merlot lovers Ideal with: Those born too late for cheap Rhone Or: Poor Man’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape Or: Who cares? This is good. Nerdy Fact: Leading AOC for quality in Languedoc S France More: here MORE Late Night Sessions notes and music here: www.wwslatenightsessions.tumblr.com UK Stockist Berry Bros & Rudd Image: Rene Gruau