From the category archives:

Languedoc

A ‘Must’ event at Vinisud: Pascal Fullá and
the Le Mas de l’Ecriture ‘Off’ vertical tasting

March 7, 2010

Parallel to the 1,600 exhibitor booths, multiple wine-tasting events, and conference sessions at Vinisud were a series of so-called “Off’ events. The name comes from a French propensity to borrow an English word or expression (“le week-end,” “un leader,” “le smoking,” etc.) and to use it to express something else. In this case, ‘Off” is [...]

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Red Bicyclette scandal: there’s un pigeon born every day

February 7, 2010

On several occasions over the years, my wife and I have house hunted in France. Sometimes it was just curiosity; before our children were born, we could take leisurely holidays, and we’d sometimes view an interesting looking property advertised in the window of one of the area’s local real estate agencies. And there’s been, as [...]

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Val d’Orbieu wine–bio and going for sustainable

February 3, 2010

Val d’Orbieu is like a cooperative on steroids. Actually, it’s a misnomer to call this organization, with its 1,000 winemakers, 11 cooperative wine cellars, and 65 individual cellars, a cooperative. It’s really a growers association with each domain making wine as it wishes, relying on help from the association’s staff as needed, and using pooled [...]

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True schist: The Barral brothers ride again

January 25, 2010

One of my favorite winemakers, and the person I interviewed for my very first Vine Route article, is Didier Barral of Domaine Léon Barral. Barral and his brother Jean-Luc make some of the best wine in the Faugères Wine Appellation in the Haut Languedoc region north of Béziers.
The frères Barral were recently featured in a [...]

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Lisson: Battling Sus scrofa to make excellent wine

November 12, 2009

The Parc naturel régional du Haut-Langeudoc in southern France is a ravine-laced landscape of lakes, wooded hilltops where the Mediterranean region meets the Massif Central plateau. It’s one of the country’s wildest, most natural areas, filled with lush vegetation and wild animals, including, among many others, wild boar, roe deer and stag, rabbits, badgers and [...]

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