Cult Wines from the SOUTH of FRANCE

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Tasting Cult Wines from the Languedoc

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I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony
I have used the following glass in this video: Spiegelau Definition Universal Glass
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:

2015 Mas Jullien Blanc, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/mas+julien+blanc+igp+pays+d+herault+de+france/2015?referring_site=KSB

2014 La Pèira Blanc, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/la+peira+blanc+igp+pays+d+herault+de+france/2014?referring_site=KSB

2015 Daumas Gassac Blanc, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/mas+de+daumas+gassac+blanc+igp+st+guilhem+le+dessert+cite+d+aniane+pays+france/2015?referring_site=KSB

2014 Grange des Pères Blanc, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+la+grange+pere+blanc+igp+pays+d+herault+france/2014?referring_site=KSB

2008 Mas Jullien, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/mas+julien+roussillon+terrasses+du+larzac+languedoc+france/2008?referring_site=KSB

2008 La Pèira, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/la+peira+roussillon+terrasses+du+larzac+languedoc+france/2008?referring_site=KSB

2008 Mas de Daumas Gassac, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/mas+de+daumas+gassac+igp+st+guilhem+le+dessert+cite+d+aniane+pays+france/2008?referring_site=KSB

2008 Grange des Pères, Languedoc, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+la+grange+pere+igp+pays+d+herault+france/2008?referring_site=KSB

The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

The story behind how I got the wines for this tasting is a bit crazy, but more on that later. Finally, I get to have a look at a misunderstood, but important part of the wine world: The South of France.
The south of France is complicated. On the one hand, the wine industry in Languedoc-Roussillon has suffered over the last decades. A focus on quantity over quality led to massive overproduction, which in turn led to large-scale vine-pulling schemes to reduce the output and stabilize wine prices.
On the other hand, there was a strong push towards quality by some pioneers going back 50 years at least. These pioneers worked hard to raise the profile of their home region, looking for the best terroirs of the South and using a mix of southern varieties, while also experimenting with more established grapes.

They managed to put certain areas from the south onto the map and transition the industry from just producing generic Vin de Pays to making AOC wines of high quality. A hotbed of this move towards quality in the south is the area around Aniane in the Herault, west of Montpellier. Some of the wineries have now achieved cult status, and their wines sell for very high prices. Getting to cult status was not easy, though …

Some of the struggles those producers had to go through were documented in the brilliant documentary Mondovino. The classic Quote “Le Vin est Mort” is from one of the protagonists of the film, Aimé Guibert, the owner of Mas de Daumas Gassac.

In the movie, he is depicted as a vigneron, battling the growing influence of the Mondavi family from the US, who, at the time, tried to establish a winery on wild land in the neighborhood of Mas de Daumas Gassac.

Aimé Guibert was one of the first to revolutionize the wine scene in the south of France, trying to create high-quality wine in Southern France. And we are going to taste some of them … and not only that, we are going to taste them aged …