Sun Shines on the South of France
Changes in attitude by the vignerons of in the Mediterranean regions of France have allow the development of top quality wines which are proving their popularity in the UK market, as Peter Bathe reports.
When the designation Vins de Pays d'Oc was created just over a decade go, few people would have thought that a major brand would be launched to retail at over the £10-a-bottle mark. After all, wasn't the term "Pays d'Oc" just a rebranding exercise for "The Midi", that vast area of high-yielding, low-quality grapes that produced masses of low-value vin ordinaire and each year continued to top up the European wine lake? True, tucked away in the heard of the Languedoc there was the exceptional gem of Daumas Gassac which could command exceptional prices – but name a second such estate.
This month, however, sees the launch by Caxton Tower of three ultra premium varietal wines under the name Fortant Réserve F, extension to the highly successful Fortant de France range from Robert Skalli. The Fortant Réserve F – a Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1996 vintage – will retail at between £10.99 and £12.99.
Over the past ten years, attitudes have changed dramatically. Much has been written about the influx of companies and personnel from the New World, but at the same time, a number o winemakers from other regions of France – Michel Laroche and the late Peter Sichel to name but two – have journeyed south and joined a growing band of native Languedociens determined to extract the best from the terroir.
And the idea that the giant cave co-operatives of the area have been holding the region back is a very outdated belief. At one time, of course, some co-ops may have been a little slow to move, content just to vinify whatever grapes their grower-members brought in, happy in the knowledge that what didn't go as cheap vin ordinaire could be sold into intervention for the EC to distil. Today, however, the co-ops are in the vanguard of developments to improve quality both in the vineyards and in the wineries. It must not be forgotten that almost invariably it is the co-ops that supply the flying winemakers with the grapes, fermentation tanks and technicians to make their high-profile wines.
At the start of the Languedocien revival, emphasis was placed on getting rid of high-cropping "inferior" varieties and replacing them with such "noble" grapes as Chardonnay, Cabernet and Syrah, but it was soon realised that with better vineyard management and a reduction in yields, many of the workaday varieties had a lot to offer to the structure of blends.
The problem had been that on the low-lying fertile plains of the Languedoc, where much of the vineyard was sited, the vines were too prolific – an advantage, and therefore encouraged, when all that were required were large volumes of basic wine. In the odd pockets of upland vineyard, where the vines were somewhat more stressed, volumes were lower but quality higher. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, several of the better sited vineyards were working towards getting full, independent AOC status, reducing yields still further and improving the quality of the wines but keeping to the traditional local varieties. Thus areas like Corbières, Minervois, Faugères and St Chinian were showing the way.
As the organisers of this year's Vinisud exhibition in Montpellier put it: "The old-fashioned race to produce the greatest quantity of wine in volume terms has been overtaken by 'Total Quality', notably introduced by a policy of regional grape varieties which underwent a total overhaul from A through to Z.
"Over the past 20 years, vineyards have undergone dramatic restructuring with the development of Mediterranean grape varieties such as Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah, the leading light of the latest replanting. At the same time, applied research has given rise to better adaptation and optimised cultivation of traditional grape varieties."
Further to the west, in Gascony, the traditional varieties are at the heart of the renaissance of long-established AOCs like Madiran and Cahors, helped, of course, by the increased interest and demand for red wine. Consumers – perhaps only subconsciously realising that there's more to life than Cabernet – are enjoying fresh experiences with the Tannat of Madiran, the Negrette of the Frontonnais and, most especially, the Auxerrois of Cahors. Auxerrois aka Cot aka Malbec has, under this last alias, become one of the latest sexy varieties, but while countries like Argentina will be able to benefit from trade and consumer interest in this grape, the French authorities' insistence that (pace Alsace) no AOC area can use varietal names on labels, means that the vignerons of Cahors have a massive PR job to do.
Not so the producers of Vins de Pays. While there are some restrictions on grape varieties and labelling for individual departmental and zonal Vins de Pays, the massive catch-all Vins de Pays d'Oc designation allows single varietal wines to be labelled as such – and have proved to be a great success commercially, particularly in the UK, but also in other export markets – and, INAO please note, in the French domestic market where French consumers are also buying by grape name.
So the pioneering work of Skalli and Jacques Gravegeal among others, together with the investment by such firms as Val d'Orbieu, Chantovent, and BRL Hardy has paid off.
So can the launch of the £10-a-bottle Vin de Pays d'Oc be seen as the culmination of a decade of hard work? Certainly it is a high point, but equally standards will continue to improve and Fortant Réserve F will only be a staging post on the road to even better things to come from the south of France.
The Sum of the Parts
At Domaine la Chevalière in the Languedoc Roussillon, Michel Laroche is working with 20 local growers across a wine growing area that is three times that of Bordeaux and six times that of Australia. The centrepiece of the initiative is a refurbished manor house just outside of Bézier, surrounded by a 6ha walled vineyard. An ongoing replanting programme is currently introducing a new selection of premium varietals – Roussanne, Vermentino (Rolle), Chardonnay and Viognier for the whites; Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon for the reds. In addition, Laroche can access a diverse source of areas, drawing from approximately 100,000ha for the red varietals, and 15,000ha for the whites. The ability to cherry-pick from selective cuvées and vineyards is designed to give the optimum latitude and quality potential to the winemaking team when it comes to blending the finished wines.
At a recent visit to Teatro in London, Laroche invited a number of journalists to test the art of blending by providing a number of his red and white varietal cuvées as base materials for an exercise in assemblage. Laroche explained how that, along with his roots in Chablis, he could be a keen exponent of both the cross varietal blending process and the single varietal designate: "In France we have been producing wine for so long that we think we know everything – we have lost the ability to ask the consumer what they want. At Laroche we are doing two completely different things, but they should be seen as complementary and not conflicting. In Chablis, we are trying to express a unique terroir, and achieving that through using one grape. The reason for this is simple: Chardonnay is the best grape for Chablis, and the AC system has got it absolutely right. The Languedoc initiative is different; it is about asking what the consumer actually wants, and reacting to that demand. In trying to achieve that, I do not want to be restricted to prescribed varieties, because I believe I can make better wine by claiming the right to use all the varietals available to me, including those outside the traditional rules.
"I am convinced that by having the freedom to pick and choose varieties we have the ability to produce the greatest possible quality from the region. That must be good news for the consumer, and that should be our primary concern."
The Domaine de Chevalière Vin de Pays d'Oc range is distributed