A Red From the South of France - Saint Chinian

I was sent bottle a bottle of the 2013 Cours la Reine Saint Chinian the other week, this is not an appellation that I know much about at all, other than it's from the south of France. It is apparently considered to be the oldest winemaking region within the Languedoc, and is split into two distinct sides, the northern part consists of mainly schist soil while to the south they are much more clay/chalky soil types. Around 70% of the vines grown are Syrah, Mouvedre and Grenache, they also grow Carignan, Cinsault and Lledoner Pelut.

This bottle is a blend of Syrah and Grenache and has lovely ruby/purple colour in the glass, on the nose it loads of red fruit with some hints of peppery spice coming through gently from the background. On the palate, the fruit came through as juicy dark berries with the spice coming through as pepper and clove. The tannins were soft, juicy and elegant, combined with just a touch of acidity that produced a really well balanced and extremely enjoyable wine.

The big question though is, would I recommend this wine? Yes I would absolutely, it's was lovely to drink on it's own and will go with food perfectly, and when it's priced at £9.95 a bottle, how can you go wrong!

A Gem from the South of France

Domaine Gayda (in the background)

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Domaine Gayda, they're based down in the Languedoc about 20km away from Carcassonne. Founded 10 years ago by Tim Ford and Anthony Record, on what was originally a sunflower farm. Having no established vines to use, they purchased some older vineyard plots from across the region giving them access to vines up to 80 years old.

Vineyards in La Liviniere

Today the whole estate is farmed and certified organically and they are also starting to grow other plants and crops to encourage biodiversity.

They have very comprehensive range from their entry level single varietal t'Air d'Oc and blended Flying Solo range, through the varietal Ceppage range ending with the fantastic Chemin de Moscou. I have to say the quality from start to finish is magnificent and i can't recommend any of there wines highly enough, but the one i really want to talk about is the Chemin de Moscou.

This wine gets its name from the road that leads up to the vineyards, and is produced using fruit from La Livinière, Latour de France, Calce, St Martin de Fenouillèdes, Tautavel & Brugairolles vineyard plots, which have some of the oldest vines that they own. It is a blend of Syrah, Grenache with a small amount of Cinsault added just for good measure, all are vinified seperately before being blended.

The Syrah is aged in new oak barrels for nine months, while the Grenache and Cinsault are put into 2nd and 3rd fill barrels for nine months, they will then blend the best barrels of each varietal before it spends a further 12 months in the same barrels.

The Chemin de Moscou is a big rich glass of wine, it has a wonderfully opaque inky/purple colour, with pronounced aromas of dark fruit, pepper, cinnamon with a hint of violets coming through from the back ground. On the palate you all of the aromas coming through with an added touch of minerality, which is just amazing, the tannins are big but not out of balance and there is just enough acidity to get your mouth watering and helping to make the flavours linger for ages.

I have to say this is just a magnificent glass of wine, and is testament to the wine making skills of Vincent, if you spot a bottle in your local wine merchant i would definately say to grab a bottle and give it go, especially when your having a barbeque.

Plume - Low Alcohol Wine

Low alcohol wines have always been something of a disappointment to many of us over the years. This has been down to the techniques employed to make them not being able to reproduce the flavours and complexity you would get from a normal wine. There is, however, a new low alcohol wine to hit the UK shelves this summer (http://www.decanter.com/news/283843.html).

Plume, the lowest alcohol wine currently on the market, comes in at only nine percent. Produced at the Domaine de la Colombette in the Languedoc by Vincent and Francois Pugibet, it is made using a process known as reverse osmosis. This is a method of filtration which can be used to remove many things from wine, but in this instance it’s only a reduction in the level of alcohol they are seeking.

Plume hit the headlines several years ago, after signing a deal with Tesco to stock its wine in the UK. However, the French wine authorities argued that wine produced using this technique could not be legally exported as French wine. As a result it was immediately recalled.

Lodging an appeal, Plume argued its case on two grounds. Firstly, they stated that the wine was not being exported as the UK is a member of the European Union, and secondly that from the 1st August 2009 the reverse osmosis technique will be classed as a legitimate experimental technique for wine production. Unsurprisingly they won.

Let’s hope that after this wait the wine lives up to the hype surrounding it and that the filtration method used only reduces the alcohol level and doesn’t strip out the flavours of the wine itself!