2016 Domaine de l'Hortus, Grande Cuvée Blanc, Val de Montferrand
Critics reviews
Joe Czerwinski - 27/04/2018
About this WINE
Domaine de l'Hortus
The dramatic sheer limestone cliff of the famous ‘Pic’ in Pic Saint-Loup provides a fitting backdrop to the wine Domaine de L’Hortus, which is made up, under the tutellage of Jean Orliac, of one of the most honest, likeable and talented wine-making teams that one could hope to meet.
Monsieur Orliac has been farming the calcerous terraces and quartz-rich escarpments for over three decades and knows better than anyone the minutiae of its soil-structure. His particular love is the Mourvèdre grape; a relationship which predates the variety’s current popularity.
The very special terroir, which forms a balcony to the Cevennes Hills, is located 24 km north of Montpellier, situated below what can best be described as ‘scree slopes’ Behind the drama and the dazzling whiteness of the limestone, there is superb terroir here, skillfully expolited in a series of wines which play to the tune of tradition and nurture the best possible results from the indiginous grapes of the area. The results are wines of great polish and personality, wines of which the region can be justly proud.
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.
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Description
Coming from the gentle slopes next to the rocky outcrop of the ‘Hortus’ the grapesfor this cuvee are combined in a blend of 60 % Chardonnay, 20 % Viognier, 10 % Sauvignon gris and 10 % Petit Manseng to produce a rich complex white. The wine, which is already packed with fruit notes, is matured in barrel for 8 months adding extra layers of complexity to its already beguiling portfolio of flavours. Peach, apricot, pineapple, citrus and almond notes are displayed on the nose and the palate and the finish moves to mineral and vanilla flavours rounded off by a lovely creamy texture.
Oliver Barton, Wine Buyer
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