Variety in abundance: discovering the Languedoc’s Côtes de Thongue

The Côtes de Thongue deserves to be taken as seriously as any appellation. It was recognised as a Vin de Pays in 1982 and at one stage there were aspirations for an appellation, but the wine-growers realised that they would have so much more freedom if they remained as Vin de Pays, or IGP as it is now called.

Being made an appellation would have seen their choice of grape varieties severely restricted; instead, there are now a breathtaking 110 grapes mentioned in the cahier des charges (the appellation rule book), as opposed to 58 for the Pays d’Oc IGP.

‘Perhaps surprisingly for the Languedoc, Côtes de Thongue is developing a reputation for its white wines’

Unlike many of the IGPs of the south, there’s no parallel appellation. If the wines are not Côtes de Thongue, they’re either IGPs Pays de l’Hérault or Pays d’Oc, but the producers tend to favour Côtes de Thongue, as that gives them a much more individual identity. Maybe a single-varietal wine will be Pays d’Oc, but the blends are all Côtes de Thongue.

So you could say that variety is the name of the game, with very few rules to be broken.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 top Côtes de Thongue wines

The location

The vineyards are based on the Thongue, a small river which rises in the Faugères village of Fos and flows into the Hérault near the village of St Thibéry.

Altogether the area covers 23 villages, with the heart of the vineyards at the northern end around Pouzolles and Abeilhan, and the historic town of Pézenas the nearest place of note.

The landscape is gently undulating, with stretches of flatter land interspersed with small hills, or puechs in Occitan, with none higher than about 175 metres.

The soil is mixed. Thirteen million years ago the sea was here, so there’s plenty of limestone, with marine sediments. There are some volcanoes, with bauxite, as well as villafranchian pebbles, not dissimilar to the soils of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

As Olivier Coste from Domaine Montrose explained, this diversity means that you can grow the same variety across different soil types, which gives different results and adds interest to the blend.

The grape varieties

The diversity of grape varieties is fascinating and inevitably the list includes some that are virtually unknown – maybe one grower with a few vines of something obscure managed to get it inserted into the cahier des charges. So there are varieties like Alphonse Lavallée, Aranel and Arinarnoa.

The Côtes de Thongue allows for three colours of Aramon, for Sciacarello (grown primarily in Corsica), for three colours of Piquepoul, and three of Terret. And the list will grow as, unlike the Pays d’Oc, they have not yet included any of the disease resistant varieties, but those are in the pipeline.

The flagship wine of Domaine La Croix Belle is No 7, made in all three colours, for the simple reason that the blend includes seven different varieties, some traditional to the Languedoc and some more international.

One estate in particular, Domaine de l’Arjolle, has led the way with experimental grape varieties, with Louis-Marie Teisserenc planting first Zinfandel and then Carmenère, and now his son, François, is pondering Pinotage and Petite Arvine. Neither, as yet, are in the cahier des charges, nor is Zinfandel, but that is in the pipeline for 2023.

Perhaps surprisingly for the Languedoc, Côtes de Thongue is developing a reputation for its white wines, which are increasing in production, while rosé is rather stagnant.

Côtes de Thongue at a glance

Location: 23 villages in the Hérault, based around the river Thongue.

Producers: 6 cooperatives and 65 independent estates

Production: 30% white, 30% rosé and 40% red

Soils: Varied – limestone and clay, bauxite, villafranchian pebbles

Grape varieties allowed: 110 varieties permitted, usually blends rather than single varieties. The most important are Chardonnay and Syrah, followed by Grenache, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. Growing interest in Cinsault, Sauvignon Gris and Grenache Blanc. Less interest in Muscat à Petits Grains, Mourvèdre, Petit Verdot and Pinot Noir.

Most important producers: Domaine la Croix Belle, Domaine de l’Arjolle, Domaine Bassac, Domaine Montrose, Cooperative d’Alignan du Vent

Vintages: Quality is pretty consistent, but various factors have affected quantity. Frost in 2021, sunburn in 2019, drought in 2018, mildew in 2017 and drought in 2016. And 2020 was complicated by Covid.

Strong focus on the environment

One of the things that does unite the wine-growers of the Côtes de Thongue is a biodiversity programme, called Biodiv&Eau, focusing on sustainability, to which most of the wine-growers are committed. It has been in place for about 10 years and emphasises not so much organic viticulture but the quality of the environment – they are planting more trees and hedges and constructing more ponds, and there are nest boxes for bats.

Emilie Alauze from one of newer estates, Lou Belvestit, noted the proliferation of birds’ nests, especially in gobelet bush vines, that provide lots of shelter.

There is also a strong commitment to organic viticulture – 80% of the vineyards are organic, biodynamic or certified Haute Valeur Environnementale.

Louis Delhon of Domaine Bassac was one of the very first pioneers of organic viticulture in the whole of the Languedoc when he took over the family vineyards in 1987.

A like-minded group of cooperatives and independents

Altogether there are six cooperatives and 65 wine estates, but they don’t necessarily make solely Côtes de Thongue wines if they have vineyards in adjoining areas and appellations.

Some are long-established, such as Domaine la Croix Belle, Arjolle and Bassac, while the area is also welcoming to new producers.

Some, like Emilie Alauze at Lou Belvestit and Delphine and Gilles Guiraud at Mas Delgi, took family vineyards out of the cooperatives, while Magali and Joël Larose of Domaine Larose bridge the gap between an independent and a cooperative. Magali is a trained oenologist and they wanted to do things that wouldn’t be feasible in a large cooperative. So with 3ha of vines they experiment, using amphora and making orange wine, while they send their remaining 27ha to the competent Alignan-du-Vent cooperative where Joël remains vice-president.

And then there are the newcomers, such as Aymeric and Sarah Discours at Domaine les Robes Noires. Barristers from Bordeaux who long had a hankering to make wine, they finally took the plunge in 2021 when they bought the former estate of Domaine du Bourdic, arriving in July just in time to organise the cellar for their first harvest.

The style of Côtes de Thongue wines: success in diversity

I quizzed Olivier Coste from Domaine Montrose about the typicity of the Côtes de Thongue.

‘There is not one style of the Côtes de Thongue; it’s determined by a group of like-minded producers who want to differentiate themselves from the Pays d’Oc, and who concentrate on the traditional grape varieties, and those best suited to a warmer climate.’

François Delhon of Domaine Bassac says ‘the soils give a certain acidity, which is good for white wines’. He enthused about Vermentino, and the return to original grape varieties such as Carignan. ‘The whites have acidity; the rosés some fruit and finesse, while the reds are fresh, with some power’.

He also commented on the good camaraderie amongst the producers. Joël and Magali Larose also enthused about the enormous choice of grape varieties: ‘There is a wonderful liberty, so you cannot really say that there is a typical Côtes de Thongue’.

What is clear is that these wines offer a mosaic of different flavours, with so much to discover.

See Rosemary George MW’s tasting notes and score for 12 top Côtes de Thongue wines:

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