Grand Roussillon is a Sweet, high Alcohol white wine produced in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. It is a natural sweet wine made by Mutage, which gives it an alcohol content of about 16% and a high natural residual sugar content. Some Grand Roussillon wines are produced using a prolonged oxidative ageing process, such as Rancio; all are subject to a minimum of two years' ageing before being released for sale. The main Grape varieties used to make this relatively rare wine are Muscat Blanc, Muscat d'Alexandrie, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris and Maccabeu.
Under the appellation laws, Carignan, Cinsaut and Syrah are also allowed, as is Listan, an obscure grape more commonly associated with the Canary Islands. The mention of grape varieties on the labels of Grand Roussillon wines is forbidden, unless the wine is made exclusively from the grape varieties mentioned; in no case may the name Muscat be mentioned. This last clause is intended to maintain the distinction between these rare wines and the sweet Muscat-based wines that are more widespread in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Grand Roussillon can be considered a cousin of the better known sweet wines of Rivesaltes and Banyuls.
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 ...
The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...
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 ...
