Natural Southern Wine Hit Parade and Tasting!
10/11/11 -
(Hills, fog, and Thierry Navarre's healthy vines)
Our Languedoc-Roussillon section is overflowing its bounds, Carignan pushing the Chateauneuf-du-Pape into the Saint-Joseph, the Cornas into the Poulsard, and the Mondeuse into the red Burgundy. Though we don’t wish to crowd the Burgundy, this wealth of very good, organically farmed, and naturally produced wine from the French Mediterranean is thrilling and we can’t seem to get enough. There was a time when we were lucky to find wines of quality from southern France. The appellation system in the Languedoc-Roussillon is young and still evolving, many appellation boundaries having been decided by politics rather than specifics of terroir. The region has fought an uphill battle against its reputation for bathing the wine-drinking world in an over-abundance of cheap plonk, but with excellent, established vignerons such as Barral and Rimbert paving the way, natural winemaking is coming into its own in the south of France.
Inspired, freshly minted vignerons hear the call of inexpensive vineyard land and carbonic maceration and take up residence in these wild southern lands. Many label their wines as Vin de Pays because they prefer the freedom of working outside the appellation system, blending and raising their wines as they choose, often – in the case of the selections listed below – with very little to no added sulfur. It seems important to note the impact that carbonic maceration has had on Natural southern wines. This technique takes clusters of grapes and carefully places them, berries intact, into a chamber with carbon dioxide. In this anaerobic environment, the berries begin to ferment, still whole, producing an array of appealing aromatic compounds. This process, often associated with Beaujolais, has helped winemakers in the south to produce light, quaffable, aromatic wines in an area historically known for big, tannic, high alcohol ones. Unfortunately some young vignerons in the south, working with vineyards only recently converted to organic – in a hurry to bottle quickly and with little or no sulfur – have produced wines that are flawed, marked by extreme reduction, aromas of Brettanomyces, flavors of dead yeast on the finish, volatile acidity, etc.. Though we’re skeptical, we’ve recently unearthed a sensational crop of clean, quaffable, natural southern French wines. These wines, many from growers who seek out high altitude sites and strive for balancing acidity, are absolutely delicious served with a light chill and deserve the consideration you give your favorite Loire Valley reds. (Please note that many of the wines listed below are not fermented carbonically but undergo more traditional elevages. All are, however, bottled with minimal sulfur or none at all.) This is an exciting new frontier, the “wild west” of French winemaking. See below for a complete list and please come taste these with us on Saturday, October 15th at 4pm! -Sophie
