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.
wines from the region of Minervois go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, pasta or veal such as recipes of roast monkfish with bacon, pasta with alfredo sauce or veal shoulder with cream and tarragon.
‘Platinum is very hard-fought’ says co-chair Sarah Jane Evans MW. ‘It’s like something in the Premier League’, she adds, ‘but getting there means it’s going to be something special.’ The Decanter World Wine Awards judging process for Platinum begins after a meticulous first round of tasting, where all entries – this year a record 18,250 – are examined by regional specialists to determine Bronze, Silver, Gold or no award. All wines awarded 95 points (a Gold med ...
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 ...
