Hideaway in France - gîtes in the Pyrénées near Carcassonne

Wine

We make no attempt to compete with the many specialist wine sites on the internet, but here is our view on our local area, along with a few links and our own comments...

Region

The Mediterranean coast, from the Pyrénées to the border with Provence, and inland has been traditionally known as the 'Midi' wine producing region. The area divides into the Languedoc and Roussillon areas shown on French maps, and produces one third of all the wine made in France (and three times as much as the whole of Australia...!) However, until the end of the 1980's, this was a dismal range of thin red wines which didn't move very far outside the area.

Fortunately, spurred on by the competition from the 'New world' of Australia, South Africa and the Americas, there has been a huge turnaround in the Midi - the old vines have been ripped out and replaced with different and more interesting grape types, the technology of production has improved, and the wines are now generally now more concentrated, complex and worthy of exploration.

The best known areas of the region are usually the Corbieres and Minervois (in Languedoc), Fitou (in Roussillon) and more recently Limoux - which is a source of sparkling wines to rival the mighty Champagne region of the North!

Classification of French Wines

As a background, the French hierarchy (best to worst) is:

• AOC - Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, with strict control of which grape type, blend, and level of alcohol must be produced
• VDQS - Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieur, effectively an AOC-in-waiting
• VdP - Vin de Pays, a wine 'of the area' where the only control is usually that the grapes must have been grown in the area
• Vin de table / vin ordinaire - this can be any mix, of any grape, from any where, and is often still weak and thin as the producers squeeze as much wine as possible from the grapes - Quantity over quality!

The Wines of the Midi

The wines of the Midi now vary from those made from a single grape variety, for example pure Merlot, to more complex blends of up to six or more different grapes, and it is here that the French love affair with classification has wrought havoc!

To try to explain, the Midi has many AOC control areas, and each will specify how the wine is to be made. For example, wine labelled 'Appellation Corbieres Controlée' must be a blend of the Carignan grape (but no more than 50%), with Cinsault, Grenache Noir, Syrah and Mourvèdre also included. This ensures a reliability in the standard of the wine, but can be limiting for the wine producer.

What has happened in the last ten years in the Midi is a huge diversity in the wine produced, so that for example, the pure Merlot from a chateau may be better than the AOC Corbieres from the same chateau. We then have the situation where their Merlot 'Vin de Pays' costs more, and is better than, their AOC!

It remains to be seen what can, or will, be done to rectify the situation, but in the meantime there is a very enjoyable time to be spent finding and sampling these excellent wines, at very good prices, and in many cases the label is often more important than the classification.

Languedoc

If you are visiting the Languedoc, and wishing to sample some of the high quality, good value wines, and want to avoid the well known areas, then here are some of the places to look:

• Malepére, an area between Mirepoix and Carcassonne, where some excellent red wines are developing, some of our favourites are La Damoiselle from Chateau de Routier, and the Pinot Noir 'Vin de pays D'Oc' from Domaine Girard
• La Clape, hidden on the coast near Narbonne, is a small appellation producing some excellent wines. It's a name you tend to remember, especially as the wines are much better than their name would suggest! We'd recommend Chateau de la Negly, and Chateau Pech-Redon.
• Cabardès, North West of Carcassonne, is almost ideally situated - warmer than Bordeaux, but cooler and wetter than much of the Languedoc. A number of producers are leaving the cooperatives and launching on their own. We like Chateau de Ventenac, or Chateau de Parazols.
• Limoux, arrayed around the town of the same name, produces excellent sparkling white wine, with a longer history than the champagne region. The 'brut' wine tends to be slightly sweeter than champagne, and the 'demi sec' sweeter still. Much of the Limoux production comes from the large commercial premises, but there are still a small number of independent producers, many still using the traditional 500 year old method, and almost all of whom produce excellent wine.

The site of the Languedoc AOC council (in English and French)

Roussillon

Roussillon is South of Languedoc, and is the area from Perpignan to Spain stretching 40km inland. Roussillon is significantly smaller than Languedoc, and is best known for the sweet white wine 'Rivesaltes'.

The appellations of Tautavel and Coteaux d'Agly are less well known, and produce excellent wines of very good value.

The site of the Roussillon AOC council (In French only)

The Ariége

The wines of the Ariége are virtually unknown and unheard of outside the local area. While there was a thriving wine industry prior to the Phylloxera disease in the late 1800s, very few vineyards were then re-established with new vinestocks.

Some local growers have prepared wine for their own consumption (or for the village fete), and a few are available in local specialist merchants. While they are by no means competition for the Bordeaux vintages, they are a nice wine to accompany food, and a true taste of our local area!