A BIB from the Terrasses du Larzac

The Permian Rouge from Domaine de Malavieille is a wine I've enjoyed over the years, but not recently as I have to admit being annoyed by the excessive rise in price, perhaps the outcome of having become certified organic.

I came across the BIB Cinq Pierres de Mérifons from the Domaine at friends. The only information is what it says on the box; a Vin de Pays 2012 at 13% abv and made from organically certified grapes.

The wine has a reassuring full colour with attractive clean ripe rounded fruit flavours. Seriously easy drinking as in the mouth it's all very straightforward and does lack balancing acidity. It would also benefit greatly for being slightly chilled.

At €18 a box the bottle price is €2.70 so a reasonable deal if you want your wine on tap and care about grape production.

Assessing and enjoying wine

Over the summer there’s been considerable commentary and debate on wine assessment and a discussion on the matter even made it to the heights of the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme. I won’t go into details here, but it seemed to start as a journalistic spat at the competence of wine judges with inconsistency cited as evidence. Robert Joseph does a comprehensive overview with references on his indispensable blog The Joseph Report.

For a while now I’ve been contemplating a post along the lines of why I find it so hard to assess wine. For example, wines I taste and subsequently buy can disappoint when consumed chez nous. It could equally be called why I don’t give scathing wine reviews or, more debatably, the difference between amateurs and pros. I touched on this a few years back with my post on scoring wine.

The factors that influence me I’ll coin, with an occasional bit of stretching, the 9 W’s.

Where	at home, restaurant/bar, tasting, winery, outdoors, party, in-flight etc.
When	time of day, maybe even the biodynamic calender
Who	family, friends, like-minded company, “commercial” situations
Whence	as in what was consumed (liquid or solid) in the build up to the moment
Whim	personal frame of mind, mood, ability to concentrate, preconception, bad day
With/without	food and what food
Weather	temperature (including the wine), humidity, even aircon etc.
Within	the stemware
Wine bottle	Stuff like when the bottle was opened, how recently bottled, storage conditions of older wines, state of the closure, tasted blind or not, knowledge of price.

These are all reasons why passing judgement on a wine with one encounter is often unfair. It may also explain why I often don’t “get” a wine on first tasting, but find it can grow on me with subsequent encounters.

I have most success in finding wines that become favourites from friends, more serious restaurant lists and caviste recommendations. Least successful is at busy stand-up tastings where I can be wowed by tasting samples of over oaked reds and obvious aromatic whites that never work at home, or indeed anyone's home. My theory is that in line-ups subtle understated wines are easily overlooked, out shouted, if not even bullied by bolder styles. All of this can be magnified by unfamiliar surroundings. Perhaps it's really a debate on the subjective vs. objective approach.

Cooperative starts Sauvignon harvest (at last)

A notice outside the Aspiran Cooperative announcing the start of the Sauvignon harvest, 4th September 2013. The caves at Aspiran and Puilacher will receive all the grapes over 4 days from 195 hectares in the central Hérault valley.

The estimate is 400 Tonnes a day which will give Clochers et Terroirs the equivalent of well over 2 million bottles of wine equating to a yield of 80 hectolitres/hectare (seems high to me as an independent grower fanatic).

There is a reminder to add metabisulphite (E223 or E224) so this won't be vin naturel sans soufre.

Enviromental graffiti

OK, this isn't a Banksy but the message is worthwhile.

Sculptures in the vines near Montagnac

The vignerons around Montagnac (Hérault valley Picpoul country) have placed 14 commissioned statutes amongst the vineyards and garrigue in the scenic hills south of the town. The Cave Coopertive is the starting point and car park and they will issue a map for a self-guided walk, either a 15 Km circuit to do the lot or a shorter option that takes in 7. Alternatively, various guided walks are on offer for a small fee that includes a wine tasting, but you need to bring a pack lunch or go hungry. For details see www.terroir-dart.com/francais/terroir-dart-les-statues.html.

The scenery is most spectacular in spring or after autumn rains when the flora is lusher and flowers bloom. By chance, we covered part of the route on a "Rando Bio" that involved a circuit from nearby Castelnau-de-Guers with several stops to fit in breakfast, refreshments and lunch. The wine served was nearby Organic Abbaye de Valmagne in Bib which worked very well as an outdoor quaffing all rounder. I've always found their bottled wines, especially the more prestigious ones, a bit dull so things could be on the up. As an aside the Abbey itself is well worth a visit.

Postscript September 2013. An early autumn charity walk for cancer support covered more of the route and statues and I can confirm this is a good time of year to visit. Advice picked up from several others is that the initial walk from Montagnac Co-op is the least interesting and to save time/energy drive up one of the paved roads to join the route in the hills.

Languedoc-Roussillon Wine Course in London

I received this by email from the drinks business - the link takes you to more information. I hope it goes well, looks like there's enough time to get really in depth. Here is a full list of dates.

September 09 - September 10, 9:30am - 5:00pm, at London
September 30 - October 01, 9:30am - 5:00pm, at New York
October 17 - October 18, 9:30am - 5:00pm, at Los Angeles
October 24 - October 25, 9:30am - 5:00pm, at Languedoc-Roussillon

Apparently Matthew Stubbs MV works at Domaine Gayda in the Aude so will obviously have on-the-spot knowledge.

2013 Vintage prospects

Most wine lovers will know that the spring of 2013 has been harsh to agriculture with rain, floods, late frosts and up/down temperatures causing problems. Mid-May saw vines in parts of Burgundy covered by fresh snow and devastating hail swathed along the Loire.

Vines in the Languedoc have fared much better. The wettest March since at least 1960, reported at the end of my recent Climate change post, put water tables back to normal after years of partial drought. Whilst April and May were as unsettled and cool as the rest of France, the flowering overall seems to have been little affected. A short article in the regional paper the Midi-Libre estimated a potential increase in yield of 6% over 2012. It also confirmed what is obvious from observing the vineyards, vine development is behind. The article states reports of 10 to 15 days behind recent years and I've heard 2 to 3 weeks from several growers which probably reflects the situation for cooler vineyard sites.

There's a long way to go. Harvests have generally been earlier and earlier in recent years so the nett result could be something closer to a medium term average.