Minervois is an appellation for distinctive red wines from the western Languedoc region of France. In general, they are softer than those produced in the Corbières, just to the South. The Minervois appellation also covers rosé and white wines. The predominant Grape varieties used in AOC Minervois wines are Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.
Together with the rarer Lledoner Pelut (or Lladoner Pelut), they must make up at least 60% of the blend. Carignan and Cinsaut are Part of the supporting wines that can represent 40% of the blend. The white wines of the appellation vary considerably in quality and style. They are made from the grape varieties Vermentino, Roussanne, Marsanne, Bourboulenc and Grenache Blanc.
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 ...
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 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 ...
