Banyuls wines come from the South-eastern Part of Roussillon, in the south of France, in the lower Pyrenees, a few kilometres from the Spanish border. These naturally Sweet wines are consumed both as an aperitif and as a dessert. They come in a wide range of hues, from GoldenGreen (Banyuls Blanc) to Amber (Banyuls Ambré) to the intense garnet of the standard Banyuls Rouge. Unusually among the natural sweet wines of France, all Banyuls wines are made primarily from Grenache grapes of various colors.
Muscat grapes (the mainstay of southern French sweet wines) are allowed, but only in very small proportions. Dark-skinned Grenache Noir is by far the dominant and preferred variety in Banyuls - it must make up at least 50% of the blend for red Banyuls (75% for Grand Cru wines). Pink-skinned Grenache Gris comes next, followed by Grenache Blanc and a host of other southern French varieties, including Mourvèdre, Carignan, Macabeu and Tourbat. As a sweet red wine made from Grenache, Banyuls is comparable to Maury, from the northern Roussillon, and Rasteau, from the southern Rhone Valley.
The Roussillon is home to a range of wine styles, at varying price points. Sweet fortified wines (vin doux naturel) used to dominate production, with still dry wines (vin sec) in the minority. In the last 30 years, however, this has completely changed, and vin sec now makes up the majority (80%) of the Roussillon’s output. The recent Wines of Roussillon tasting, held in London, not only highlighted many good quality dry wines being produced, but also cemented the idea that Roussillon whites are ...
I was with some wine students in Chablis, visiting the affable Guillaume Michel of Domaine Louis Michel. The 2018 vintage in Chablis was prolific, though Guillaume’s team pruned the vines as hard as normal. Guillaume has a little more than a half-hectare of the smallest of the grands crus, Grenouilles (8.74ha in production in 2018, most of which is controlled by the cooperative La Chablisienne): delicious in 2018. And, after a year’s pruning and vine-tending, after hand-harvesting and scrupulous ...
At the 2021 Decanter World Wine Awards, the world’s largest wine competition saw its biggest year to date, with 18,094 wines tasted from 56 countries. Over 15 consecutive days in June 2021, almost 170 expert wine judges, including 44 Masters of Wine and 11 Master Sommeliers, awarded 50 Best in Show, 179 Platinum, 635 Gold, 5,607 Silver and 8,332 Bronze medals. Join Decanter at our Fine Wine Encounter NYC this June, where you will have the opportunity to sample 23 of these top awarded Gold, Plati ...
