One day, Philippe took me into the vineyards around Montpellier to get a sense of the winegrowing that takes place around the city. Montpellier is at the heart of the Coteaux de Languedoc – one of the largest winegrowing regions in France. The nearest region to Montpellier is the St-George-d’Orques, within sight of the sea, from any hill. They grow white, red, and rose wines here – I believe that Grenache is a major part of the red and whites, with Syrah, Mourvèdre, making up the reds, with some Carignane and Counoise as well. The whites also take in Roussane, Marsanne, and some Viognier.
We stopped first at Chateau de L’Engarran, an impressive country estate with nearly 300 acres under vine. They are a relatively large winery for the region, and produce very solid rose wines. I enjoyed their whites and red as well, but the most expensive cuvees seemed over-worked and a bit tired – the white a touch toward oxidized, and the red very oak driven, with American oak prevalent. They had a rose from both a free-run process and from a drain down of juice from a vat of crushed fruit. The former was delicious; pale purple and filled with aroma and soft on the palate. The other was more herbal, but still delicious – just a touch of tannin, and loads of floral and herbal character.
The Domaine is owned by two sisters, and from the photographs on display, they throw some amazing parties! They had just finished the regional St-George-d’Orques springtime festival, where people can walk from domaine to domaine through the picturesque roads and sample wine and food at each of the 7 domaines. (Unfortunately, the weather this year chose not to cooperate, so they said that not too many people showed up, and those who did were in their automobiles!) In the autumn, the estate throws a party in their extensive and gorgeous gardens, complete with hired actors in 17th century dress, to evoke the era in which the Domaine was established, and copious amounts of food and wine!
The second winery that we stopped at was called Domaine de la Prose. This was obviously a smaller estate, and their vineyards are spread gently along a long approach slope leading to the winery / domaine, with plenty of wild vegetation and semi-feral olive orchards on the approach. The wildflowers around the area are amazing, the poppies, or coquilles were on show in a way that people here say that they have never seen until this year. From the top of their slope, one can view the Mediterranean in the far distance, just a glimpse of azure flashing, past fields of green vegetation.
Bertrand, the son of the owners greeted us. He has studied winemaking in Bordeaux before working stages in Bourgogne, Corsica, and South Africa. He a few of their wines for us – gorgeous rose, perfectly beautiful Vermentino blanc, and intensely fragrant red wine from Cinsault, Syrah, and Mourvedre. Everything inside this winery was well-done and tidy, but on the exterior, there was a gracious squalor to the state of the vineyards. The vines themselves appeared well-attended, with proper shoot thinning and moderate vigour. But beneath the vines, in the cobbled stones of the vineyards, hundreds of different flowering and creeping ‘weeds’ or companion plants were growing side by side with the vines.
Bertrand said that they don’t farm according to ‘biodynamic’ principles exactly, but rather are somewhat homeopathic – they combine different herbs and composts into the sprays that are applied to the vines, to give them vigour and strength and resist diseases which could otherwise overtake the vines. As we talked, and I told him that I was in Montpellier to attend a conference at SupAgro, he said that often the students would come out from the university, and they would laugh at his rock. When I asked him which rock, he showed me a large, red standing stone between the Cinsault vineyard and the winery. “Before the stone, I would have problems in the cellar with the wines from this vineyard. I had a consultant visiting, who is familiar with these things, and he told me to place a stone there. Ever since; no problem in the cellar.” And so, there you have it!
The wines were really great – if anyone reads this with the power to import wines to the Etats-Unis; be advised that this could be a great estate to be involved with, and at much less than some of the Rhone wines! Just make sure to send me a few cases every year, okay?
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