The greatest vineyard in the world is not known for great
wines. The French Mediterranean vineyard stretching from the Rhone valley to the Spanish border called
Languedoc -Roussillon or just the 'Midi' is known for inexpensive wines. There are a lot of good wines in the Midi –
the trick is to find the good winemakers.
But, excitingly for me because I drink them myself even if I
have so far not managed to sell many, some great Midi wines do now exist. I've
spent my wine life intently watching them come into being. Mostly through the
eyes and taste buds of my friend Andrée Ferrandiz who today, after 40 years, is
giving up being a merchant here. .
But she is too enthralled by the evolving wine story in the Midi ever to give
up her life's passion. So she'll continue to guide us and this week, she's
taking our Midi buyer Cat Lomax into her confidence and taking her to where the
greatness - the real treasure - is emerging.
I'm not missing out on this so I'm tagging along. And I've
invited my photographer friend Yves Gellie along too. Now him, I've known nearly
50 years! See his website and his shows; he's very good – preparing to do a job on vineyards for Unesco –
but I still can't stop telling this artist how to do his job! Ah, the wonderful
rows we have!
We started in Banyuls where vineyards dip steeply down
almost into the sea on the Spanish border. We met Bruno Cazes. In his vineyards
which you see tumbling down steep terraces just across the bay from the little
town. I told him I'd coveted his vineyard for 40 years. He looked at the
flabby, pale old Brit and smiled politely. This lean, sinewy brown man
cultivates 11 hectares entirely by hand and on foot - any wheeled or tracked
vehicle would destroy the ancient dry stone terracing. A visiting Chinese
delegation were amazed, he said, to see him and his family harvesting his crop
climbing with huge hods of grapes on their backs in baking heat. They thought
nobody in soft Europe worked like that anymore. His grapes go - sadly, no
longer by rowing boat - to an old winery called L'Etoile in the town. Well,
worth a visit.
The place has never changed in all the years we have dealt
with them. They make strong wines. Either dry 'Collioure' or sweet 'Banyuls'.
Not cheap but very impressive. The sweet wine – usually 15 or 16 degrees – is
one of the world's great socialising wines. Just a chilled bottle of Banyuls
with a bar of chocolate makes for a memorable evening with friends. Try it.
The best wines age for many, many years. They even age them for
a couple of years or so in big glass bottles on the roof, in full sun. That
speeds up the aging like tenfold! I
really don't know any other wines that could survive such treatment.
These wines are indestructible and last forever as far as
anyone knows. All those thinking of buying wine for their newborn can invest in
this wine knowing the child will be able to really enjoy it throughout their
adult life.
It's all to do with the soils. Schist! No, it's a type of
rock.
Rock like millefeuille pastry on which little grows except
vines. Tough, feisty varietals like Grenche, Syrah and Carignan can slide their
little roots deep down through its flaky layers in desperate pursuit of water
in this arid landscape. They get their water... and also a wealth of minerals
that work miracles in the wine. No-one understands quite why in any detail,
really, but in the vast – and geologically very scrumpled-up Midi, where
schists come to the surface, it is there you find the potential for Greatness.
I don't realise it as we begin our trip but this is going to
be I now see, a trip round the schists! Brown, black, purple or green. And
pronounced sheests.
We travel on through Perpignan and up the Agly Valley to
Maury. Home of our famous XV and another great schist source of Vins Doux
Naturels. The village co-op winery there in its splendid cellars in the old
Train Shed (roof by Eiffel) can supply
me my birth year wine ('45). I am sure they could've supplied my Dad's, even
Grandad's, birth years except so much went missing in the war.
Mark Hoddy our Chai winemaker who is now in charge of the XV
and other wines was with us, too. His technical skills will be key to our
future work here. He showed us round the
special patches of vines from which he sources his XV fruit. He also showed us
the little house where he once lived for three years desperately trying to make
a living from vines that produce a tenth of what a good Bordeaux vineyard will
yield.
The lady next door dropped her broom and rushed out to
embrace him; not so dour as many Maurizians?
We had a drink in the Cafe des Sports. Mmm, I've known friendlier bars. Still,
that's probably an effect of the incessant maddening wind here; the 'Vent de
Folie' as Mark calls it. And calls the wine he makes in his friend
Jean-Charles' tiny cellar. Today, touching 40 degrees, Jean Charles has left
the vineyard where he's been since 5 am.... to go fishing. So sadly we miss him
out and spend the evening with Herve Sabardeil in the dream 'Grand Designs'
inside/outside home he and Jean-Baptiste have made out of an old open barn and
yard right in the heart of a lovely village. Hilarious evening beside their
inside/outside pools with friends, amazing wine and food, sparrows fighting,
swallows swooping and Hervé's little pet frogs making an unbelievably deafening
attempt to dominate the conversation.
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