Limoux is a relatively New appellation (created in 2003) in the eastern Part of the Aude region of Southern France, which applies to both red and white wines. The vineyards extend around the town that gave it its name, in the foothills of the Pyrenees east of the Languedoc-Roussillon/corbieres">Corbières and south of Carcassonne. Historically, this region is best known for its Sparkling wines, which are produced and sold under the appellations of Blanquette de Limoux and Crémant de Limoux. The vineyards here are higher and cooler than those of any other appellation in the Languedoc-Roussillon, and also further away from the moderating temperature influences of the Mediterranean.
This leads Limoux and its surroundings to produce a style of wine quite different from other appellations. This includes neighbours such as the Corbières. In Limoux Rouge, red wines are made primarily from Merlot (at least 50% of any AOC Limoux blend), supplemented by a wide range of other French red varieties. The blend must include three grape varieties, with the two most important accounting for no more than 90% of the total.
Mauzac is a grape variety, black or white (the white one is better known), originating from the South-West. It is mainly cultivated in the vineyards of Gaillac and Limoux (where it is called blanquette), on about 5,000 hectares. mauzac has medium-sized bunches, composed of berries whose colour can vary from green to red depending on the maturity of the grapes. This grape variety likes limestone and clay-limestone soils, and it is here that it is most productive. Its white wines are fat, with little acidity and marked by aromas of ripe apple, pear, honey, quince, vanilla and violet, typical of the great sweet wines of Gaillac. mauzac also produces the famous Blanquette-de-Limoux in rural method. In this region, Mauzac is competing with Sauvignon, Chenin and Chardonnay, especially for sparkling wines which are more similar to Champagne. It is also used in some appellations such as Entre-deux-Mers, Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux, Côtes-de-Duras, Vins-de-Lavilledieu...
sparkling wines from the region of Limoux go well with generally quite well with dishes of pork, rich fish (salmon, tuna etc) or vegetarian such as recipes of wild boar bourguignon, salmon in brick pastry or quiche without pastry, courgette and blue cheese.
On the nose in the region of Limoux often reveals types of flavors of citrus, nutty or tropical and sometimes also flavors of red currant, cranberry or banana. In the mouth in the region of Limoux is a powerful with a nice vivacity and a fine and pleasant bubble.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
