Languedoc-Roussillon

Well, one thing, at least I know they're all Grenache, but like, it's going to be interesting.

Like, is this from the rocks? Where is this? Is this, is this, is this from the Languedoc? Where, where is this wine from? Right.

Like really nailing down, we're going to really get a chance to see the differences and terroir.

I mean, the best part about a blind tasting is getting it wrong.

That area, that's the rugby league area.

The Languedoc area.

Yeah, just south of France.

That's quite popular.

wineries.

On a flight to join a food and wine writing course in the French region of Languedoc-Roussillon, I happily enjoyed an after-dinner glass of port.

I enjoyed wine so much that I actually decided to study it.

I completed levels one and two of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust Courses, WCET, and wrote a travel blog about the experience for my travel and lifestyle website, reviewfromthehouse.com. That was a long 15 years ago.

Down in the south, around the Riviera, there was and still is a distinct language that is spoken.

Well, the province of Languedoc down there is based on the idea of a different way to say yes.

And Provençal.

It's as simple as that.

They actually fought over which way to say it.

So that's where Languedoc comes from.

But the...

I would say to people going to France, attempting to speak the language, as in many times you've said this about almost all countries, maybe all countries, attempting to speak the language will be beneficial to you.

1907.

The wine country of Languedoc in the south.

This time the problem wasn't prices that were too high, but prices that were too low.

Big harvests in 1904 and 1905, plus competition from cheap and sometimes fraudulent wine sent prices crashing.

Wow.

The harvest kicked off unusually early in Fitou, which is Languedoc.

Yeah.

July 15th.

Some of those early Christians were actually deemed heretic by the later Christians because they didn't adhere to the creed or, you know, post-Nizia creed.

And then the book goes up to the Rennes-le-Château, this extraordinary mountain top village in Languedoc in the south of France.

where a young priest, Saunière, on a very low salary, suddenly came in for a lot of money so that he was able to rebuild the church and build extensively elsewhere in the village.

How did he get his money? People have asked.

So here's the deal.

It was rarely bottled as a single varietal in France, and instead it was an essential blending component in inexpensive red table blends across Languedoc, Roussillon, and Provence, where it added color and bright acidity.

By the mid-20th century, French wine producers were focusing on quality over quantity, and so you know what happens.

They started moving away from grapes like Val de Guillet, and much of the acreage was pulled up.

Today, it is nearly extinct in France.

Oh, wow.

And it survives only as an obscure variety grown in small patches across the Languedoc and Provence, where it's occasionally included in regional wines.

So you're probably in France.

Okay.

And those were important to you also, from what I understand, because you had worked in Bordeaux, you had worked on the Right Bank, and then you had also worked, uh, outside of Montpellier, so with Languedoc varietals and stuff like that.

And so to bring that here and, uh, I think almost as a vessel to express what the land in Stellenbosch can, can create wine

Correct.

This week on Wine Chat, we continue our French unit.

We continue south to the Mediterranean coast to talk about the regions of Languedoc-Roussillon.

Covering 700,000 acres, this region is the biggest producer of wine in the world.

Whoa.

There, there's a lot to cover in this region.

Yeah, there really is, Cam.

So the, the Languedoc-Roussillon covers basically the area of France that starts at the Spanish-French border with the Pyrenees facing onto the Mediterranean coastline.

Uh, and it pretty much covers the entirety of the Mediterranean coastline until you get to the Rhône River near Avignon, that kind of thing.