Premium Languedoc-Roussillon white wines: 30 to try

This proved to be a phenomenal tasting of Languedoc-Roussillon white wines, with more than a third of the 100 tasted achieving high scores and the rest not far behind.

Prices ranged from around £25 to above £100 per bottle, with a couple of outliers under £20 that held their own against the big players.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 30 premium Languedoc-Roussillon white wines

The price proved to be a significant issue, because Languedoc-Roussillon as a region is generally regarded as a supplier of good wine at reasonable prices. Many top quality wines missed selection because they were too low in price.

Style

The wines came from throughout the region, from Collioure on the Spanish border to vineyards around Nimes near the Southern Rhône, and from the coast to further up into the hills. The tasting also covered a multitude of appellations, including Vin de France and IGP, but there was little-to-no evident regional style.

Terrasses du Larzac producers are currently formulating the rules for their white wines to be added to the appellation and a dominance of Viognier is being avoided.

While there are many more Chardonnays emulating oaked Burgundian styles in the mid-to-premium range, the only £25+ Chardonnay tasted was the Domaine de l’Aigle from Limoux, as recently featured on Decanter Premium.

The principal varieties on show in this tasting were Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Carignan Blanc, Roussanne, Marsanne, Rolle and Chenin Blanc, with some Viognier and Bourboulenc.

Grape selection

Many producers included local, often obscure varieties, such as Terret, Piquepoul Blanc and Gris, Malvoise de Roussillon, Sauvignon Gris, Maccabeu, with many also using old, low-yielding vines – the wines almost universally showing incredible concentration of fruit.

The majority of the wines tasted were blends of numerous varieties, sometimes as many as six or seven, which curiously forces the appreciation of fruit and structure away from the identification of a single variety while also giving enormous complexity to the final wine.

This meant that one of the biggest attractions among the wines tasted was the enormous diversity of fruit profiles, illustrating the benefit of working with such a large number of varieties.

Those with a higher proportion of Carignan Blanc and Chenin Blanc unsurprisingly showed greater freshness and clean acidity, such as Le Clos Rivieral, Mas Cal Demoura and Mas Jullien.

Grenache Gris has a less evident fruit profile, but has marvellous structure and texture, as seen in Clos St Sebastien, Château Maris, Domaine Augustin and Les Jamelles.

Roussanne-dominant wines showed rich apple fruit, such as Cave de Roquebrun’s Pépites de Schistes and La Peira, while Grenache Blanc had more pear and quince.

Ludovic Engelvin’s off dry made using the exceptionally hot summer temperatures shows how well the local varieties adapt to climate change.

Ageing

A significant number of wines were released with some age, with ageing in old barrels, amphorae and tanks, resulting in wines which were generally already showing some more mature characteristics.

The weight and structure suggested that they all had potential for greater ageing. About a third were made with evident new oak. On the whole, the least successful were those that were overly worked, new-oak blockbusters – often the most expensive and with the biggest reputations.

Not all wines were classic whites. A few outliers also appeared in the tasting, without making it onto this list.

Orange wines from Famille Fabre (Carmin Viognier) and Cécilia Diaz (La Mariota Orange Tacsum), and Domaine Jones’ La Perle Rare employed a solera method.

Overall the range of wines showed distinct individuality and originality with great quality. While many may think of the wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon as being cheaper or big reds, these results suggest maybe more attention needs to be paid to the region’s great whites.

See tasting notes and scores for 30 premium Languedoc-Roussillon white wines

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Elizabeth Gabay MW has specialised in the wines of south-eastern France and Hungary since the 1980’s. Working as an independent wine merchant and consultant, she graduated as a Master of Wine in 1998 and moved to southeast France in 2002.

Her book, Rose: Understanding the pink wine revolution, was published in 2018 and she has continued to write about and judge rosé wines for Decanter.

Aside from Decanter, she has written for Drinks Business, Harpers, The Wine Merchant, VinCE and Nomacorc.

She is the lead instructor for the Provence immersion course run by the French Wine Society and she has judged at numerous Decanter World Wine Awards since 2007.

Premium Languedoc-Roussillon white wines: 30 to try