Version francaise

After 6 months in the Languedoc Roussillon I have been thinking through my experiences and impressions about the wines of the region. I shall be publishing them one at a time over the next seven days. I have had a few conversations about wines recently centred around some villages, areas and grape varieties and I noticed they had one thing in common, all 7 began with the letter C. I shall be posting one each day over the next week.

Caux

This village in the fairly new AOP of Coteaux du Languedoc – Pézenas seems to be the centre of some very good winemaking. I have mentioned Mas Gabriel, owned and run by Peter and Deborah Core, several times in the past as it has long been one of my favourite domaines in the region.

A recent Gold medal at Millésime Bio for Clos des Lievres 2012 was richly deserved and a sign of the improvement they are making to both their vineyards and wines.

Their property was once part of Domaine La Garance, whose wines also have an excellent reputation, though I have thus far only drunk the white vin de table which was delicious in a natural style. I know that the Cores and Leon Stolarski rate them highly, and I trust their judgements.

The wines of the Conte De Floris were amongst the highlights of Millésime Bio (see my notes) seemingly light in body but powerful and long lasting, delicious wines. I was delighted to find some of the domaine’s wines in Le Vintage, a wine bar in Pézenas to stock up.

I have also enjoyed a couple of wines from Lacroix Vanel based in the village. The estate whose wines I really want to get to know are those of Fontedicto a natural wine domaine whose owner uses horses to plough. I am told they are very good wines. So this small village is home to a number of very good domaines, Caux is a centre of excellence.