Browse Tag

languedoc

The race to Dieuvaille

[label]Miquel “Domaine de Barroubio” 2004 Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois Dieuvaille (Languedoc) – The classic Dover Cliffs-infused floral sweetness with structural icicles and frost patterns within, adding a great deal of textural complexity to what is usually a fairly straightforward wine. There’s also a lower-toned throb of additional depth that’s only apparent late in the finish, and given all that plus a fine acidic backbone, I wonder if this might not be ideally situated for transformation in the years to come. Well, I’ll never get to find out, as this is my only bottle. (1/10)

Ángel Jiménez

[vineyard]Miquel “Domaine de Barroubio” 2004 Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois (Languedoc) – From 375 ml. Every time I have a good muscat from either this or the Beaumes-de-Venise appellations, I wonder why I don’t drink more of them. Ennui, probably; there’s a wide world of sweet options out there. But when, for example, a St-Jean is on, there’s just something so sweetly pretty about it, and yet there’s that rocky background that makes it something more than Yet Another Sweet Muscat. This particular bottle is in-your-face, but it’s polite about it, and is a complete blast to drink. (12/09)

Santa clause

Clavel 1999 Coteaux du Languedoc Terroir de la Mejanelle “Copa Santa” (Languedoc) – Clinging to life, but with one foot in the graduated-care center and the other in a cast. Rough at the core but smooth at the edges, showing salt, sand, and soil with a light waft of baked red berries and a tinny edge of tannin. A little too old, but still a pleasant memory. (12/09)

Walk on water

Rozier “les traverses de fontanès” 2006 Vin de Pays d’Oc (Languedoc) – Cabernet sauvignon. And it tastes like it, too. What’s interesting is how it shows that character, because while I usually expect cabernet from these southerly regions to be ponderous and under-structured, this is anything but. It’s not underripe, but it brings out the tobacco leaf, cedar, and (ripe) bell pepper qualities of the grape, leaving plenty of acidity and a reasonably crunchy plane of tannin. It’s light, overall, and if any cabernet not all the way over into fruit-bomb territory can be said to be “fun,” this is one. (8/09)

Count Henri twice

Comte Henri de Colbert “Château de Flaugergues” 2003 Coteaux du Languedoc La Mejanelle (Languedoc) – Rocky and forbidding, dominated by its tannin (which is more sludgy than hard), and while there’s layer upon layer of thick blue fruit, I’d be hard-pressed to identify this as French. It tastes more Californian, or perhaps South African (before they layer on the oak, which blessedly is not an intrusive issue here). Weirdly compelling, but mostly because it’s served amidst a procession of underfruited wines; in the context of other vintages, I think this would be easily put aside. (9/09)

Here’s mud in yer Ravaille

Ravaille Frères “Ermitage du Pic St. Loup” 2005 Pic Saint Loup (Languedoc) – Approaches all hard, swaggering, and dangerous-looking. But it’s an act, mostly. The fruit narrows (not “thins,” exactly, but turns more pointed and angular) on the palate, and the wine never quite delivers on its promise. There’s some dark fruit, some smoke, some meat, but nothing like what it needs to be a complete package. (8/09)

Grin & Gibert it

Gibert “Domaine Faillenc Sainte Marie” 2008 Corbières Blanc “Pas des Louves” (Languedoc) – I’m still waiting for my white Corbières epiphany; the aromas are nice enough (orange juice, honeysuckle, gravel), but the wine’s sticky at its core and drippy around the perimeter, and this performance has been replicated in other wines I’ve tasted of this tint and from this appellation. (9/09)

Red comb

Hautes Terres de Comberousse 2001 “Cuvée Roucaillat” (Languedoc) – Fat, overly lactic, and kind of nasty. (7/09)

Corbières me

[vine]Laboucarié “Domaine de Fontsainte” 2005 Corbières (Languedoc) – The spicy soul of a land, with the integrated depth of a slow-cooked sauce and a slow-rolling tingle of sizzling dark red fruit. Absolutely delicious. (6/09)