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.
Cinsaut noir is a grape variety that originated in France (Provence). 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 large bunches and large grapes. Cinsaut noir can be found in several vineyards: South-West, Cognac, Bordeaux, Provence & Corsica, Rhône valley, Languedoc & Roussillon, Loire valley, Savoie & Bugey, Beaujolais, Armagnac.
red wines from the region of Minervois go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, pasta or veal such as recipes of pork tongue with bacon and onions, spaghetti with courgettes and italian ham or tête de veau sauce moi.
On the nose in the region of Minervois often reveals types of flavors of red fruit, black currant or cherry and sometimes also flavors of earthy, non oak or raspberry. In the mouth in the region of Minervois is a powerful with a nice balance between acidity and tannins.
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 ...
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 ...
