2021 Domaine Rostaing, Puech Noble Blanc, Languedoc

Domaine Rene Rostaing

Pierre Rostaing is now firmly in charge of this domaine and running it very successfully, working by hand and mostly organically. His holdings in Côte-Rôtie now count 30 parcels across 11 hectares. In the winery, Pierre continues to use predominantly whole-bunch fermentation and the wines are matured in both demi-muids and Burgundy barrels. He keeps the barrels for ten years, electing to use only 10-15% new oak on average. This perfectly complements the domaine’s style, which beautifully showcases the terroir and makes for extremely dark, rich and long-lived wines. 

Rostaing’s parcels saw significant damage this year in the April frost with the worst being up to 80% loss on his La Viaillère plot. As such, he was not able to vinify this separately in 2021 but the benefit is that the fruit has, once again, gone into his brilliant Ampodium cuvée. Pierre talks about how 2021 is more like a vintage of twenty years ago and when you taste wines like ʼ21 Ampodium with its fine, crunchy fruit, black pepper freshness and only 12% alcohol, you can see why. With its restraint, purity and freshness, this is the style of Syrah that we fell in love with when we first discovered Côte-Rôtie.

Languedoc-Roussillon

Over the last 25 years, the fortunes of Languedoc-Rousillon have been transformed largely due to the introduction of the Vin de Pays classification in 1979. This led to extensive replanting on more suitable sites, a drastic reduction in permitted yields and, crucially, reducing the dependence of red wines on the ubiquitous Carignan grape.

The new classification enabled producers not only to experiment with other grape varieties, but also to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by the New World – to give the customers what they wanted, namely clearly-labelled international varietals like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Despite a sometimes deserved reputation for its contributions to the European wine lake, this exciting region continues to see a flow of investment from the Bordelais and others, which has enabled the evolution of the qualitative pyramid to continue. Perhaps the most striking improvements have been seen in Minervois La Livinière and Pic Saint Loup, but not far behind are the wines of St.Chinian and Cabardès.

Regardless of the financial influx and the wonderful terroir of the different appellations, the increase in quality is also allied to some extraordinarily-gifted winemakers, including Jean-Luc Terrier and Jean-Louis Denois.

Other Varieties

There are over 200 different grape varieties used in modern wine making (from a total of over 1000). Most lesser known blends and varieties are traditional to specific parts of the world.