Languedoc is full of surprises

Theme for our blind tasting tonight was Languedoc. A vast area with plenty of different AOP, soils and varietals. It was pretty difficult to identify with certainty a Corbieres from a Minervois or a Languedoc from a St Chinian. Anyway, a very good lineup paired with oven cooked hanger steak and eggplant flan.
A lot is happening is Languedoc, maybe because the price of the land is not crazy yet allowing young or new winemakers to settle there. Also, a lot of natural winemakers found a home in those regions.
10 main areas for this vast production land:

-Languedoc (from 2008)
-Coteaux du Languedoc (includes Pic St Loup)
-Picpoul du Pinet (white only)
-St Chinian
-Faugeres
-Minervois
-Fitou
-Corbieres
-Muscat de St Jean de Minervois and Muscat de Lunel
-And of course many Vin de Pays/Vin de table

2008 Domaine Léon Barral Vin de Pays de l'Hérault - Vin de Pays de l'Hérault
Golden color, cloudy. Incredibly complex nose. You would think the wine is sweet based on the nose but not at all.
There's so much going on. Floral, apricot, perfume, basil, honey, rose, hint of salt.. I could write a book of aromas. Palate is round with a low acidity but completely balanced and not heavy. Very long finish.
Overall a very surprising and delicious wine meant for food. WOW. Total natural, no SO2 added during vinification or bottling.

2008 Le Petit Domaine de Gimios Vin de Table Rouge de Causse - Vin de Table
Natural wine, vinified without sulfur. Impressive complexity on the nose with aromas which are quite unusual. Grand-ma powder like at first, then it was an explosion of dried herbs, oregano and Worcestershire sauce. Salty tang with also some paprika. High acidity, fresh. Some barnyard notes as well.
I loved this wine but this is a wine that I think you either like or don't, no middle ground. Impressive freshness for the region. Anoter natural wine from the Minervois region.

2009 Château Saint-Baulery Saint-Chinian - Saint-Chinian
Dark cherry core, almost opaque. Lactic nose which did not change with time. A lot of fruit, borderline jammy.
Very simple, soft. Overall boring, too forward and a little too ripe. The grenache showed a lot.
40% Carignan, 30% Syrah and 30% Grenache.

2007 Château Grande Cassagne Costières-de-Nîmes "G.S." - Costières-de-Nîmes
A lot of blackberry and herbs on the nose. Then more plum and hint of ripe strawberry. Overall, it shows a dark profile, low acidity and smooth tannins. It was a little more balanced than the Baulery but still too ripe, flabby and boring.
A shocker when the wine was revealed. We loved the 06 which was all about red fruits, balance and an underlying acidity. The warmth of '07 completely, in my opinion, ruined this wine.




1992 Mas de Daumas Gassac Vin de Pays de l'Hérault -Vin de Pays de l'Hérault
Mature Bordeaux like nose. Smoky, cedar and cassis. Developing in the glass and showing more tobacco and a hint of redcurrant. Med body at best, the finish kicks back and is long.
A light and somewhat austere version of Gassac, very good with food and still very much alive.




2007 Domaine Faillenc Sainte-Marie Corbières - Corbières
Interesting nose of dirty socks with plenty of cassis as well.
The palate is also showing plenty of cassis with a slightly grainy texture. Tight at first, it needed time to open. Nice and surprising acidity when the vintage was revealed.
Tremendous value at that price.





2001 Prieuré Saint-Jean de Bébian Coteaux du Languedoc - Coteaux du Languedoc
Pretty consistent with the previous bottle. Big nose. Oak and dark fruit. Again too much oak for my taste on the palate. Full body. With air, some meaty and olives notes appear but the creamy texture along with the oak bother me. Definitely modern.




2007 Domaine Léon Barral Faugères - Faugères
Garrigue with olive notes on the nose with a lot of licorice, fennel and fruit, dark cherry and plummy. Tobacco and leather comes along with air.
I had the chance to follow the evolution of the wine over 3 days and the last day was without a doubt the best for this Faugeres. The touch of heat had disappeared and the wine showed much more balance, complexity and depth. Still, it always showcased Barral's usual purity. Good acidity.
A very good wine which needs a few years.
50 % carignan, 40 % grenache, 10 % cinsault grown on schistes. Only cement and stainless tanks.




2004 Mas Jullien Coteaux du Languedoc - Coteaux du Languedoc
This wine fooled me as I thought it was a cab blend when in fact it is carignan, syrah and mourvèdre. Smoky nose with cedar and light oak. Blackberry and cassis notes with a very light floral lift.
Tight and shy, hard to evaluate. On the 2nd day, the wine showed too much oak to finally calm down on the 4th day and become more interesting and civilised. Still, it was always balanced with a good acidity.
I have no doubt the oak will integrate and this is a wine which will be very good in 7-8 years. Olivier Jullien is a talented winemaker on the terrasses du Larzac and his wines, both whites and reds, demand patience.


Languedoc has gone a long way since the 50s-60s when many producers from other areas where using grapes form this region to add color and alcohol to their wines. Countless winemakers are now working consciously and express the different terroirs.

Not perfect? Not a problem !

What's a perfect wine? I don't know as I have not had one yet. But I wonder: is a perfect wine will give me the most pleasure ever? Or will it be so perfect that, because of that perfection, I'll have the impression of something missing, that little imperfection which would make the wine...well perfect.


One thing for sure is that this 2003 Domaine Léon Barral Jadis was not perfect, far from it. But it managed to thrill me in many different ways.



2003, as everybody know, was terribly hot all over Europe and the Languedoc region suffered from it like any other regions. Making balanced and fresh wines was certainly not easy. Sure, you can always acidify, modify, manipulate your wine but at the end is it really your wine? Enter, Didier Barral, winemaker with his brother for the Domaine Leon Barral (Leon was their grandfather). No manipulation is allowed here, what you have is the direct result of the vintage. To see how they treat their vineyards is really spectacular. Pigs and bees have been introduced. They consider the surrounding forest, just like Selosse, as very important and crucial for the balance. As little as possible sulfur is used. If you want a "natural" wine (even though I dislike that term), there you go.




For all this reasons, and more, it seems that there are a lot of bottle variations. Some with a lot of VA, some where it refermented, some dead before being opened...I actually don't care, I accept and am ready to take this risk because I know Barral's wines are special and always tell me something.

This 2003, Cuvée Jadis, had many reports of bad bottles. Just after pulling out the cork, I decanted the wine. Surprisingly, it made a thick foam and it started smelling like in a fermentation vat. The very 1st sip had a "cider" aspect. Well after an hour it settled down. Was there some VA? Yes, for sure. The acidity was surprisingly high but seemed not totally integrated with the wine. But despite all this, the nose was complex and enticing: cocoa powder, very floral, strawberry and leather. Yeah sure, throw some VA in the mix. On the palate, it's big but not overwhelming. Save for that weird acidity, it is also complex with again plenty of leathery and floral notes along chocolate and ripe strawberry. Far from a perfect wine but it managed to give me so many different emotions and showed different faces.



This is 2003, this is the vintage. The vines have suffered, the winemaker as well. The wine is showing it. But this is what I want. I want to understand the vintage when I taste the wine. More and more, wine (especially Bordeaux) is becoming like a NV Champagne: the same year after year when everybody try to erase the particularities of the vintage.

I remember Jean-Marc Roulot, saying he wants his wines to be different every vintages. Well, Mr Roulot, Bravo !