Bad news stories about French wine are ten a penny: falling
consumption, losing ground to the New World, too much poor quality stuff still
made. However, the picture is not entirely bleak and there are also many success
stories to be told – and I do not just mean Bordeaux First Growths lining their
pockets thanks to cash-rich Far East investors.
The Languedoc, the world’s largest wine-making region, covering
a vast swathe of southern France, has, as you might imagine, its fair share of
what might politely be called unambitious wines. However, it is also home to
quality-minded producers, proud of their unique terroirs, their old vines and
confident in the region’s ability to make top notch wine.
Languedoc is also a stronghold of wine-making co-operatives,
organisations which unite independent growers who provide their grapes (or
sometimes juice) to a central facility which makes, matures and bottles the
wine; and finally, markets it. It’s clear that such a model does not
automatically drive high quality production – in less switched-on co-ops, where
growers are paid based on the amount of grapes they deliver, there is little
incentive to focus on quality, by maintaining vineyards with lower-yielding old
vines for example – or on such concerns as sustainability.
In today’s competitive wine market there is ever less room
for such a quantity-driven approach, however. Those wine co-operatives which
are thriving nowadays are those which are dynamic, forward-looking and who
embrace modern technology, but who also respect what growers with valuable
vineyard plots are able to provide them, focusing on quality rather than
quantity. Off the top of my head I’d point to Plaimont Producteurs in France’s
Southwest, the Caves de Turckheim and Ribeauvillé in Alsace and Mailly Grand
Cru in Champagne as co-ops which fit this description.
Vignobles Foncalieu, headquartered near the impossibly
picturesque medieval walled city of Carcassonne, near Toulouse, have also
showed that they are determined to aim higher in their quest to provide a
market for their 1,200 individual growers stretching from Gascony to the Rhône
Valley. Those growers tend 5,000 hectares of vines and produce 23 million
bottles of wine annually.
At those levels of production, it would be foolish to say
that quality is uniformly high, but it is certainly true that Foncalieu, under
the leadership of President Michel Bataille, is focused on driving up quality
and moving away from the “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” mentality.
As part of their push towards the top, in 2012 Foncalieu
bought the well-regarded Corbières estate, Château Haut-Gléon, which it now
runs as a kind of business within a business. Its wines are hard to find in the
UK currently, but if you would like a taste of what the sleeping giant of
Corbières is capable of, keep your eyes peeled for them. Perhaps the best way
to sample Haut-Gléon’s wines is to go and stay at the Château itself, which has
been refurbished to provide luxurious accommodation.
But as any student of marketing knows, there is always more
than one strategy for success in a market. To say that Domaine Jones is at the
opposite end of the scale to Foncalieu is to risk understatement. Founded,
owned and run by Katie Jones, this pint-sized winery in the Fitou region of
Languedoc makes just 20,000 bottles of wine a year from 10 hectares of vines.
Katie moved to France just over 20 years ago and spent most
of that time helping to market and sell the wines of the Mont Tauch
co-operative. In 2009 she made the leap and bought her first parcel of vines in
Maury just over the “border” in Languedoc’s neighbour, Roussillon. A small and
isolated plot of old vines with blocks of different grape varieties, as Katie
says “The very things that make my small vineyard unattractive to the big
growers make it a paradise for me.”
Although size-wise these two producers may be poles apart,
they do share some common ground. The vast majority of the wine they make goes
to export markets – 80% for Foncalieu, 98% for Domaine Jones. They are also, in their different ways, part
of the process of helping the Languedoc to climb out of the cheap wine ghetto.
Foncalieu and Domaine
Jones wines in the UK
Katie Jones’ wines are available through Majestic, Naked Wines
and The Wine Society – though, as they are necessarily made in rather small
quantities, they are not all always in stock. Some of Katie’s most exciting
wines are her whites and unfortunately, due to an act of vandalism last year, when
the vats were deliberately emptied, all of her 2012 white wine production was
lost.
Domaine Jones Côtes
Catalanes Grenache 2012 - £11.95 from The Wine Society
At its most basic, Grenache makes wines that are fairly
simple, combining strawberry fruit and white pepper. However, old vines such as
these bring greater concentration and full-bodied, ink-tinged fruit.
Katie’s biggest production is of the red blend, Fitou,
though currently both Majestic and Naked Wines have sold out of their stocks of
2011 – the 2012 will be on its way. Naked Wines customers can currently enjoy
the simpler charms of her Le Petit Train Corbières 2012 (£9.99/£7.49)and Le
Petit Train Syrah 2012 (£10.99/£8.25).
Domaine Cambos Gros
Manseng 2012 – on offer at Hennings Wine Merchants for £5.50
From the Gascony end of Foncalieu’s production, Gros Manseng
is a white grape incapable of making boring wines – fresh with a distinct
grapefruit tang and a surprising amount of weight and persistence on the palate
(and ony 11% alcohol).
Le Versant Viognier
2012 - £8.50 from Hennings Wine Merchants and other
Le Versant is Foncalieu’s core range of varietal wines,
which you might come across on many a restaurant wine list. This Viognier is
their top seller in the range and supplies plenty of the variety’s typical
stone fruit and honeysuckle aromas, with a more savoury feel on the palate. Also look out for Le Versant Syrah, Merlot and
Cabernet Sauvignon at around the same price.
