The State of France

Posted: 7th October 2022

I got back from a few days in Provence in the middle of the month. It had been one of those vintages again: day after day at over forty degrees Celsius. My host told me that on many days he had been unable to leave his quarters before ten o’clock at night. The real problem is that this is now the norm. Cooler, wetter vintages like 2021 are exceptional; and the wines get more and more alcoholic as a result. Long ago I suggested planting Carignan or Cinsault to add to the reds; cultivars that can be picked at 12.5, give a lot of juice, and work well in tandem with Grenache and Syrah. At these temperatures Grenache might bring you sixteen percent, and it oxidises easily. Carignan is a good antioxidant and it can bring the wine down to a more modest 13.5.

I am told this will now happen. The wines are very good, but when your dinner drink nudges fifteen degrees it limits the number of glasses you might safely consume. And it is not just Provence: I met a Bordeaux grower this week who told me about a Pinot Noir he’d had from Sancerre in the ‘temperate’ Loire. It was fifteen degrees. ‘It tasted like Grenache!’ He said.

Clearly something has to be done. It’s not just the reds either. Wine is not an oil painting to be hung on the wall and admired, it is a beverage. It is there to refresh the palate and soothe the mind. I like a glass of white or rosé wine as an aperitif. It should be able to tickle my palate and excite my appetite. It won’t do that if it is fifteen degrees, low in acidity and blistering with oak. Unrelenting sun and the wrong approach will make it that way.

Whites need to be brought in earlier, picked at night, and made (once again) from varieties that don’t yield so much alcohol. Picpoul de Pinet is a local, Languedocian variety, and the wines come out at around thirteen percent. Picpoul is versatile and refreshing. Rosé might be perceived as the solution, but another is to make sparkling wine, and these were among the more striking brews on offer at a recent London tasting of Languedoc wines.

The advantage of sparkling wine is that you can pick the grapes relatively green and retain the refreshing acidity. At the Languedoc tasting I noted both the Crémant and Blanquette de Limoux wines. They are high-grown, and Crémant at least mixes grape varieties to achieve greater complexity. I singled out Les Graimenous and La Rose No 7 from Domaine J Laurensas well as the pure Mauzac Brut Nature Blanquette from Maison Antech, which would make excellent aperitifs.

There were some good reds too even if many are 14.5 or more. Starting at the top: two wines from the Domaine de Villeneuve in the consistently reliable Pic St Loup – 2020 Happy Culteur and 2017 Chant des Roches both brimming with fruit; the 2019 Vignes Royales from Domaines Auriol proves the worth of the schisty Berlou sub-appellation of St Chinian; 2019 Milo from Aubert et Mathieu in Minervois La Livinière was a nice peppery Syrah-based red; the 2020 Les Sacrés from Ams Tram Gram had good body and a nice terroir nose; and two wines from ancient vines from the Domaine de la Cendrillon in the Corbières – Inédite and No 1, both 2016, were outstanding.

Vignobles et Signatures brought together some well-known French estates at the University Women’s Club. It was lovely to taste the Domaine Cauhapé in Jurançon again, the dry wines focusing on Gros Manseng and the sweets on Petit Manseng, and to learn the value of the ancillary Courbu, Camarelet and Lauzet grapes. There was a nutty 2020 Eclipse and the 2019 C de Cauhapé, not to mention the classic sweet wine, the 2020 Symphonie de Novembre. From Chinon, Couly-Dutheil was there as was their excellent Les Chanteaux Chinon Blanc and their reds, including the famous single vineyard Clos de l’Echo. There was a marvellous 2008 Banyuls Grand Cru from Coume del Mas: leather, figs and chocolate.

Also in the Women’s Club, Charline Drappier presenting her ungreedy family champagnes from their land in the Aube, including the biscuity Clarevallis, from near Clairvaux, the Cistercian abbey Napoleon turned into a high-security prison (the jail is due to be released next year), a ‘Burgundian’ Brut Nature from Les Riceys and another Brut Nature ‘Sans Soufre’ with a beautiful length. The treat was the mellow 2012 Grande Sendrée.

There were some fine Rhone wines from Alain Jaume including a buttery 2020 Butte d’Or Condrieu with aromas of lemon and apricot; a 2020 Grande Garrigue Vacqueyras and a 2020 Le Miocène Châteauneuf-du-Pape that had me thinking of poires au vin.

The Domaine de l’Hortus in Pic St Loup is an old friend. From a sappy white composed of six cultivars, to the toasty, creamy 2020 Bergerie, to the Grande Cuvée of the same year culled from mid-slope below the famous Pic, these wines have been an inspiration for forty years. Then there were some treats from Domaine Roux in St Aubin, white Burgundy from St Aubin and Chassagne Montrachet (Premier Cru Les Macherelles 2020) with a little whiff of fresh cut parsnips, and then a raspberry-scented  2019 Vougeot premier cru, Les Petits Vougeots, which needed lots of time and a more cherry-like Chambolle-Musigny premier cru Les Noirots of the same vintage.

The wines finished with the famous Château de Tracy in Pouilly-sur-Loire. There was the basic 2021, a really catty Sauvignon Blanc, and then the 2019 Haute Densité (17,000 vines per hectare) with wonderful intensity, and then 2017 101 Rangs (rows) planted in 1908. There is something of a russet apple, and real feeling of breed.

Then there were spirits: the Lesgourgues family owns the Château de Laubade estate in Bas-Armagnac, as well as Château Haut Selve in the Graves (look out for the 2018 Reserve) and Château Peyros Marie Blanque in Madiran. The 2006 armagnac from Laubade is a blend of many grape varieties and has that enchanting smell of prunes. Francis Abécassis makes cognac as well as a seductive orange liqueur and a delicious Pineau des Charentes.

There is a range of cognacs from the Fins Bois: a distinguished floral VSOP and a rather more orangy XO and then the same from Grande Champagne: a VSOP redolent of pears and pastry, and an XO with rancio notes – that telltale dried apricot smell.

Jean-Paul Durup had shown me some 2021 Chablis. The year was fraught with disasters but he saw it as particularly good. I was struck by how much Chablis was returning to its original, austere character, after masquerading as a big fat, oaky white Burgundy for a couple of decades. I think the leaner year helped. Durup compared it to 2016. A fabulous Vieilles Vignes was produced from vines planted in 1905, 1926 and 1942. The Vau de Vey had an earthy, catty side, and the nutty 2019 Reine Mathilde was a blend of other premier crus. It needs another three years to bring it round.

There was more Chablis at the GCF (Grands Chais de France – the holdings of the Alsatian Helfrich family) Private Wine Days. They own the Domaines Marguerite Carillon, Michaut and the négociant houses Moillard-Thomas and Moillard-Grivot and Chartron et Trébuchet. The same austerity was recognisable in the Vaucoupin from Michaut, although Marguerite Carillon’s Beauroy was richer and oakier. The range I liked best was Chartron et Trébuchet, the Fourchaume in particular. I tasted their red Burgundies as well: aAn exemplary 2019 Pommard, a gorgeous 2019 Corton-Renardes and (unsurprisingly) a 2016 Clos de Vougeot that made me wish I could spare £215.10.

Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé tasting

The tasting was in a secretive skyscraper by Waterloo Bridge. Another event that favours tall buildings is the annual Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé tasting. The 2019 was clearly a spectacular vintage, but there were other wines, such as the 2016 Château Bellefont-Belcier and the Château de Ferrand or the 2009 Clos des Jacobins.

For me the best of the 2019s were Clos des Jacobins, the Château la Commanderie, the Couvent des Jacobins, Château Dassault, Château de Ferrand and Château Fonroque.

Wines like these are part of the French crown jewels: their future will not be placed in doubt until rising temperatures force their owners to buy land in Normandy or Brittany. But such things still come at a huge price. I went home and consoled myself with a bottle of 2021 Château les Mesclances, Cuvée Saint Honorat, a rosé with a peachy aroma, some power and an impressive structure. And it was very good too at cooling those last rays of summer.