Faugeres is an appellation in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. Although it also covers white and rosé wines, the appellation is best known for its Rich, ripe red wines made from the classic Rhone varieties of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre, as well as the more MediterraneanCinsaut and Lladoner Pelut. The appellation covers the southern slopes of a series of hills only a few kilometres from the Mediterranean coast. The town of Faugeres forms the centre of the area, which extends 10 km from east to west.
The town of Carcassonne is a Short distance to the southwest. This position is very important for the Terroir of Faugeres, as the hills protect against the cold influences of the northern Massif Central and orient the vines towards the prevailing sun. This gives Faugeres a Warm, classically Mediterranean Climate, where even the later grape varieties like Mourvèdre can reach Full maturity. As is often the case, the best sites are on the steeper slopes at the top of the hill, while the vineyards on the plains stretching out towards the sea produce mostly lower quality wines that are often sold under the regional PGI title.
Mourvèdre noir is a grape variety originating from Spain. It produces a variety of grape specially used for wine making. It is rare to find this grape to eat on our tables. This variety of grape is characterized by medium to large bunches, and grapes of medium size. Mourvèdre noir can be found in several vineyards: South-West, Cognac, Bordeaux, Provence & Corsica, Rhône valley, Languedoc & Roussillon, Loire valley, Savoie & Bugey, Beaujolais.
The largest-ever year for entries, an incredible 18,244 wines were judged at the 2022 Decanter World Wine Awards – with just 163 wines awarded a Platinum medal. ‘Winning a Platinum medal is something really exceptional’ said Decanter World Wine Awards Co-Chair Sarah Jane Evans MW. ‘Platinum is like the stratospheric level’ she commented, ‘so it’s really saying to the winemaker: this is a great wine.’ Making up just 0.87% of the total wines tasted at the 2022 c ...
Many wine styles can seem perplexing at first: imagine the first bottle of Barolo if you only know Barossa Shiraz, or the first bottle of Jura Savagnin if you were brought up on California Chardonnay. With time, thought and repeated tasting, though, comes understanding. You learn each wine’s syntax and lexicon, its hints and inferences. You grasp the ways in which each style communicates. Its beauty dawns, then grows. Rosé wine sales grew 23% worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Its fuel has come fr ...
I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...
