Corbières & Minervois report 2023: Latest releases tasted

Corbières & Minervois 2022 vintage rating: 4 / 5

Corbières & Minervois 2021 vintage rating: 3 / 5

Despite the rumbling autoroute that forges east-west through its heart and the sea of towering wind turbines that stand like sentinels, Corbières is still a wild, roughhewn landscape, a lumpy and scraggy expanse of vines and garrigue.

It’s a huge appellation: by far the largest in the Languedoc both in terms of production (around 270,000hl per year) and area under vine (8,300ha). As Rosemary George MW says in her 2018 book Wines of the Languedoc, ‘the particularity of Corbières is the diversity of its terroir, for both soil, which is mainly clay limestone, and climate, ranging from Oceanic in the far west to a warm Mediterranean climate on the coast.’

This diversity is a strength (varieties and blends differ significantly depending on location, and Carignan is of particular note), but also a weakness (despite its size and potential, it has only come up with one cru, Boutenac).

Corbières’ neighbour Minervois abuts the Montagne Noire on its northern flank, and also has just one cru – La Livinière.

See the Languedoc report 2023 homepage

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top Corbières & Minervois wines from 2022 & 2021

2021

The growing season

After a mild winter and spring, April frosts hit many areas of the Corbières with merciless force. ‘In some plots, including Syrah, Cinsault, Grenaches Blanc and Gris and some Carignan, we lost 80% to frost,’ says Xavier Ledogar, owner and winemaker at Domaine Ledogar, ‘we had a tiny crop.’ 

It was a common occurance across the appellation: ‘We had a terrible frost on 8 April which lasted three weeks,’ says Clémence Fabre, export manager at Famille Fabre, ‘we lost 80% of the crop across our five domaines.’

‘We couldn’t make all of our cuvées,’ says Fabre, ‘it was the smallest volumes we’d ever made. My father went back through three generations of archives and there has never been frost so bad and so late in the year. The government allowed us to buy in bunches of grapes and vinify them.’

Such catastrophic loss at an outfit with five domaines across multiple different terroirs is alarming. ‘In general, given we have domaines in different areas, we normally come off ok when there is disease pressure or episodes of frost, but this time it was across the board,’ says Fabre.

After losing 50% of his crop in 2021, Maxime Magnon decided to buy vines in a completely different terroir, 20km away around Peyriac-de-Mer, ‘in order to diversify in terms of terroir, not to have everything so close together,’ he says. In theory this insurance policy minimises risk – but as 2021 shows, it doesn’t work every time.

‘It’s a heavy atmosphere, being a paysan, with such climate pressure,’ says Magnon.

Some areas also had rain around harvest time, which ‘caused a slow down in ripening,’ says Céline Peyre of Domaine Balansa.

The Minervois was affected by the frosts too, reducing yield, and temperatures in the summer were slightly cooler than usual. Yet the climate in the Minervois is less extreme than the Corbières, the winds somewhat tempered by the Montagne Noire, the frost somewhat less severe.

Whites

Those that had enough grapes left to make wine were rewarded with good concentraion. Some 2021 whites had a lovely rich expression of citrus fruit, and the best show some opulent honeysuckle florals alongisde a stony, mineral core.

Reds

Corbières

Like the whites, some of the 2021 reds have impressed. Some of the higher-scoring wines have high percentages of Carignan, and some of the best wines have achieved full-bodied bramble characters and a nice succulence. Some show slightly pokey alcohol.

Minervois

The majority of the Minervois wines tasted for this report were from the cru La Livinière. Due to ageing requirements (until at least the 15 October of the year following the vintage), most La Livinière wines being released are 2021 and 2020. Despite the challenges of 2021, the quality is good, and the wines, especially from La Livinière, have a seductive aromatic profile, good concentration and length.

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2022

The growing season

In stark contrast to 2021, the 2022 growing season flipped the coin. ‘We were worried because the frost of 2021 had been so strong that it might affect the next year’s harvest,’ says Fabre, ‘but in fact it was the most beautiful harvest of the last 50 years, in volume and quality.’

It was a hot year overall, with periods of drought in some areas, but the vines had good water reserves thanks to a fairly wet preceding autumn and winter. After such small yields in 2021, Domaine Ledogar found itself with an enormous crop. Nature has its ways of balancing things out.

‘It was a fairly easy year, generous. It was hot but there wasn’t a heatwave. We really are living in the extremes,’ says Fabre.

Whites

Despite the relative ease of the 2022 vintage compared to 2021, the wines haven’t achieved huge depth and aren’t as exuberant as one might think, due to such high yields. However, the top-scoring wines have a fleshy ripeness, a keen line of minerality, good acidity, and a noticeable structure in the mouth.

Reds

The reds in 2022 have a slightly lighter character, both in body and in fruit profile. Some offer fragrant strawberry, menthol and rosemary notes combined with a fairly taut structure. Others are more plummy, rich, with a somewhat rustic tannic structure.

The two vintages are very different, the wines offering differing profiles due to such stark variation during the growing season. 2021 may surprise with its longevity, while 2022 will most likely be slightly less long-lived.

Though most are consumed when young, the wines of this region offer intriguing possibilities for ageing, especially the wines from the crus of Boutenac in Corbières and La Livinière in Minervois. The 2008 Chimère Rouge from Famille Fabre’s Château de Gasparets is an excellent example, a window into how these wines can age when everything is in harmony.

See all Corbières & Minervois latest releases rated

See the Languedoc latest releases score tables:

All top-scoring wines

All top-scoring white wines

All top-scoring red wines

Top-scoring wines

White

Maxime Magnon, La Bégou, Corbières 2022 – 95 points

Domaine Pierre Bories, Le Blanc, Corbières 2021 – 93 points

Château La Baronne, Les Chemins, Corbières 2022 – 93 points

Château Ollieux Romanis, Prestige Blanc, Corbières 2021 – 93 points

Red

Château Ollieux Romanis, Atal Sia, Corbières Boutenac 2021 – 94 points

Domaine la Bouysse, Terrassaé, Corbières 2022 – 93 points

Château Sainte-Eulalie Bellezour Anima Minervois La Livinière 2021 – 93 points

Domaine Combe Blanche, La Chandelière, Minervois La Livinière 2020 – 93 points

Top five value wines

Domaine Py, Troisième Cuvée, Corbieres 2022 – 91 points

Château Beauregard Mirouze, Campana, Corbières 2022 – 90 points

Clos de L’Anhel, Le Lolo de L’Anhel, Corbières 2022 – 92 points

Domaine Combe Blanche, La Chandelière, Minervois La Livinière 2020 – 93 points

Château Maris, La Touge, Minervois La Livinière 2020 – 94 points

Individual appellation analysis:

Limoux | La Clape | St-Chinian | Faugères | Picpoul de Pinet | Terrasses du Larzac | Pic St Loup

Top five producers to look out for

Maxime Magnon, Corbières

A Burgundy native, Maxime Magnon started his own domaine in the Corbières in 2002 after working in Beaujolais with Marcel Lapierre. He now makes sought-after wines from predominantly very old vines (80-120 years old) that have great finesse and a lightness of touch.

Domaine Ledogar, Corbières

Xavier and Mathieu took over the family domaine in 1997, stopped selling the grapes to the local cooperative, and soon converted to organics and then biodynamics. Characterful wines.

Château Beauregard Mirouze, Corbières

A domaine that’s newly on my radar, this is a young husband and wife team who have taken over the family estate, converting to organics in 2010 and biodynamics in 2018. One to watch.

Domaine la Bouysse, Corbières

A new discovery, a family affair. Both white and red 2022s impressed. One to seek out.

Château Maris, Minervois

A good example of making biodynamic wine at some scale, this domaine has made great leaps in pushing forward on sustainable viticulture and was one of the first European vineyards to obtain BCorp certification.

See the Languedoc report 2023 homepage

Tasting notes and scores for the top Corbières & Minervois latest releases:

The wines below are listed by style then score, starting with the highest scoring Corbières followed by the highest scoring Minervois.

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