2019 Domaine de Montmarin, Viognier, Côtes de Thongue, Languedoc-Roussillon

Domaine de Montmarin

Domaine de Montmarin lies among the hills running down to the Mediterranean to the west of Cap d’Agde in Cotes du Thonge (Southern France) and covers around 350 hectares, of which just over 120 are planted with vines.

The owner, Philippe de Bertier, is a charming and unassuming individual who, with the help of his consultant œnologist and his maître de chai Bertrand Waris (from Champagne), makes exceptionally good and well presented varietal Vin du Pays wines. Recent investments in the bottling facility have seen the wines move to screw-cap whilst the launch of a range of dual varieties under the Domaine de Bertier label has further enhanced the range.

Viognier

A white grape variety originating in the Northern Rhône and which in the last ten years has been increasingly planted in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc.

It is a poor-yielding grape that is notoriously fickle to grow, being susceptible to a whole gamut of pests and diseases. Crucially it must be picked at optimum ripeness - if harvested too early and under-ripe the resulting wine can be thin, dilute and unbalanced, while if picked too late then the wine will lack the grape's distinctive peach and honeysuckle aroma. It is most successfully grown in the tiny appellations of Château-Grillet and Condrieu where it thrives on the distinctive arzelle granite-rich soils. It is also grown in Côte Rôtie where it lends aromatic richness to the wines when blended with Syrah.

Viognier has been on the charge in the Southern Rhône and the Languedoc throughout the 1990s and is now a key component of many white Côtes du Rhône. In Languedoc and Rousillon it is increasingly being bottled unblended and with notable success with richly fragrant wines redolent of overripe apricots and peaches and selling at a fraction of the price of their Northern Rhône cousins.