Sips: A tasting reveals some exciting white wines from France’s Languedoc

I stopped off briefly yesterday afternoon at a media and trade tasting here in New York featuring the wines of Languedoc in southern France, the world’s largest wine-growing region. Languedoc is making a concerted effort these days to increase awareness of the region, which, despite its vast size and production, doesn’t enjoy the stature or popularity of many other French wine regions. And yet, the more I taste the wines – at least those being showcased in this country – the more I believe that consumers and the trade should pay more attention to them given their quality and attractive pricing.

At tasting events like this one – there were more than 60 wines  being poured – I like to zero in one or two appellations with an eye toward finding a few memorable wines. And so I made my way over to a table featuring the still white wines of Limoux, which is best known for its sparklers (Blanquette de Limoux and Crémant de Limoux). Most of these still wines, which are part of a new Grand Cru level in Languedoc, were chardonnays and reflected a range of styles, from crisply refreshing, lightly oaked examples (my preference) to those with a much more pronounced wood influence that will benefit from some bottle age to bring them into balance.

When I looked up the wines I liked on winesearcher.com, most  were under $20 and one was under $10, making them real values given their quality. Alas, availability seemed quite limited for these wines, but hopefully that will begin to change as they become better known. The first wine I tasted was actually not a chardonnay but a chenin blanc, Château Rives-Blanques 2008 “Dédicace,” $17, which was crisp, lemony and refreshing and would be a perfect accompaniment to shellfish. The chardonnays I preferred included a delicious 2008 example from Domaine de Mouscaillo, $22, which was racy with lime and exotic spice notes; Vignerons Sieurs d’Arques’ 2009 Toques et Clochers “Océanique,” $17, which showed citrus, green apple and vanilla notes; and the real bargain of the group, Domaine Astruc’s 2009 “d’A,” a subtle and complex blend of 95 percent chardonnay five percent mauzac, which I found listed for $9.

Selling these largely unfamiliar wines to a broader audience here in this country is going to take some work, but with their quality and attractive prices, the effort should be worthwhile and consumers will be the winners.

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Sips: From France, a superb $17 sparkler

At a discussion I moderated last week here in New York on the convergence of the wine and social media worlds, part of the fun for the audience was being able to taste a few great wines before and after the event. For starters, we served a superb sparkling wine that I had come across at a couple of recent tastings, including one in which I served as a judge of some of the best wines from the Languedoc region in the south of France (a role for which I received an honorarium).

The wine was the 2008 Blanquette de Limoux Grande Réserve from Antech, and I thought it would present a nice opportunity for those attending to try a very good non-Champagne sparkling wine, of which there are many, of course. This one, at a suggested price of $17, is less than half what you would pay for even the most inexpensive Champagnes. And it proved to be highly popular with the audience, very much in a dry Champagne style. It’s bright and very fresh with fine bubbles, made primarily from the local mauzac grape (90 percent), with five percent each of chardonnay and chenin blanc. It’s lemony with a note of green apple and and a nice yeasty quality that also reminded me of Champagne. An altogether delightful wine at a price that can’t be beat.  In my tastings, I also discovered that Antech also makes an excellent sparkling rose called Emotion made primarily from chardonnay with smaller amounts of pinot noir, chenin blanc and mauzac. Raspberry and strawberry notes with a lemony finish. Fun fact: there is some evidence that the bubble-producing method of secondary fermentation in the bottle actually originated in Limoux before it was used in Champagne. Imported by Baron Francois Ltd., New York.

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Sips: the first rosé

The temperature is a chilly 56, but I am thinking of the warmer days to come this evening and sipping the season’s first rosé, an excellent wine from the Languedoc region of southern France, a 2008 Vin de Pays du Gard from Roc d’Anglade, a small producer of organic wines. This blend of syrah, grenache and carignan is a delicious, pale-salmon-colored wine that is very dry but has expressive red-fruit essences, notably raspberry and strawberry, with touches of lime and vanilla on the finish and a nice little tannic  framework. It’s a model of rosé elegance. As for the vintage (2008), it has obviously been around for a year or so.  While just about everyone seems bent on drinking only the latest rosé releases – the 2009s are coming into the market now – the Roc d’Anglade reminded me that rosés are just fine in the bottle for a year or two; in fact, I would venture a guess that this one, with its expressive fruit, has benefitted a bit from a year of bottle age. Even though I’m shivering a bit, I’m enjoying this first rosé of summer as I write this. Some 500 cases were produced. A check of wine-searcher.com reveals that it sells for $23 wine at Sherry-Lehman in New York. A pricey rosé, but then you do get what you pay for. A Becky Wasserman Selection, imported by USA Wine Imports, New York. (Received as a press sample.)

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The pinot file: Gallo, France, hit by fake wine scandal

There was a good deal of buzz about this when I was in France the week before last, and now the shoe has dropped on a dozen French wine producers and traders in one of the biggest wine scandals to hit the country in years.

The growers and businessmen in the Languedoc-Roussillon region claimed to be supplying pinot noir to, among others, E. & J. Gallo, the California-based wine giant, for its hugely popular Red Bicyclette brand that sells for about $9.

Yesterday, a court in the region found the 12 guilty of fraud for churning out several million gallons of wine that was labeled pinot noir but was, in reality, much less expensive merlot and syrah, which are common to the region while pinot noir is not. The defendants received suspended jail sentences and were fined up to $244,000.

The story is getting a good deal of attention here and in Europe, with The Guardian, in its lead, summing it up exquisitely: “The  Californian wine buff testing his glass of wine in the sunshine might have noticed many things from his mouthful of Red Bicyclette pinot noir: "dark fruit aromas," as the website proudly proclaims, or "flavours of black cherry and ripe plum.” But if he had paused a little longer and maybe sniffed a little deeper, the connoisseur might have detected another, rather different note: the bitter taste of being had.”

In a statement, Gallo said it was “disappointed” to learn of the guilty verdicts. It said it was no longer selling any of the wine in question to its customers and that the only pinot noir “that was potentially misrepresented to us would have been the 2006 vintage and prior.” It’s doubtful that much of it still around.

Here's the bigger problem: the French are trying mightily to improve their market share and to overcome the inherent difficulties that Americans and others have in deciphering the language of the labels and the country's complicated and highly regulated appellation system. Buying up millions of gallons of cheap “pinot noir,” bottling it as “Vin de Pays” and putting the grape variety and a cute picture on the label, as Gallo did, was a blessing for the French -- a way way of making their wine more accessible to the American masses. At least that’s what everyone figured until what was in the “pinot noir” bottles turned out to be fake. Americans hate feeling cheated and I suspect that both the French defendants and Gallo will share the blame in the minds of consumers.

There has been no suggestion that people were harmed by drinking the phony wine, at least not physically. The harm is in the fact that everyone who bought a bottle of fraudulent Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir trusted that they were getting what they paid for – from the growers and the brand. That trust was broken.

The French make some of the very best wines in the world, as I was reminded in a week of tastings in the Loire Valley earlier this month, mostly with small family-owned producers. For them and the vast majority of French growers and industry executives, integrity and reputation are everything. It will be a shame if they have to suffer because of the dishonesty of a few bad players.    And yet, this is also a wakeup call to the fact that the misdeeds of a few can end up hurting many more.

Notable winter reds

At 17 degrees here in New York , some hearty reds I’ve enjoyed  in recent days come to mind.

From the far reaches of my wine collection, Chateau Lagrezette’s 2000 Cahors “Le Pigeonnier” demonstrates what a few years of bottle age will do for malbec grown in Cahors in southwest France. Cahors is usually quite rough when young, but this one, at nine years old, had given up most of its rough edges when I served it with some steaks grilled in the fireplace the other night. Notes of blackberry, black cherry, mocha and cedar. A superb wine. When I looked for retailers that carried it on wine-searcher.com, there was exactly one listing: Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library in Springfield,  New Jersey,  which offers it at $154. Obviously a wine for special occasions.

From Italy’s Piedmont, Marchesi di Gresy’s 2006 Barbaresco “Martinenga” is an excellent wine from the famed Barbaresco appellation. Made from the region’s signature nebbiolo grape, I was surprised by its accessibility at this youthful stage. Light ruby in color, it’s softly tannic with delicious fruit, showing notes of raspberry, cherry, tobacco and  earth.  Irresistible. For all kinds of roasts (we enjoyed it with homemade spaghetti and meatballs). $55. Imported by Marchesi di Gresy USA, Napa, California.

From the south of France, Hecht & Bannier’s 2006 Cotes du Roussillon Village is a winning blend of mainly grenache with smaller amounts of syrah and carignan with notes of sweet blackberry, cherry and earth. Bright acids balance the 14.5 percent alcohol and make it an excellent partner for pan-seared pork chops, sirloin steak and lamb. The suggested price is $25. Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York.