DOMAINE LE CONTE DES FLORIS, Caux, Herault
LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON


I'll let Jancis Robinson, who led me to this producer, tell the story of 'perhaps the most surprising wine find of my recent long sojourn in the Languedoc.
'Daniel le Conte des Floris may sound like a French aristocrat but was until quite recently a journalist on the French wine magazine La Revue du Vin de France. He got the wine bug to such an extent he had to go and make it and has acquired vines around the little village of Caux north of Béziers close to many other great wine practitioners in Montpeyroux and Jonquieres.

He makes a range of red Coteaux du Languedoc on various soils and with limited yields and two whites based on Carignan Blanc, the pale-skinned mutation of the reviled and much-planted dark-skinned Carignan. Lune Blanche is already fine drinking, a full bodied dry white wine with more than a hint of honeysuckle and lime blossom, perhaps almonds too. There is enormous extract here, as one might expect of yields averaging less than 25 hectolitres per hectare. Carignan Blanc represents 80 per cent of the blend, Grenache Blanc 10 per cent and a blend of whatever else is in the vineyard makes up the rest.

''The guiding hands of two experts in Carignan Blanc - Le Conte des Floris' neighbour Olivier Jullien of Jonquieres and Gérard Gauby of Roussillon - can be seen in the serious structure of this wine (Jullien's and Gauby's whites are also of course well worth seeking out, but are already well known). Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations were accomplished in barrel, with new oak for only 15 per cent of the wine, quite old oak for the rest, and did not finish until well into the year after harvest, having ground to a halt over the winter. The wine was therefore not bottled until early this year.'

www.jancisrobinson.com August 2004

The reds are all AOC Coteaux de Languedoc and are named according to their style and where they are grown. La Lena is 40% Syrah with 30% Grenache Noir and 30% Carignan and Cinsault; it is a lovely, deep spicy Rhone style red. Villafranchien is grown on stony soil and is 80% Grenache, 20% Syrah and Carignan, all old vines; it packs a juicy and long-finished punch. Carbonifiere is the other way about - 80% Syrah, 20% Grenache - and has depth of colour and flavour. Daniel recommends decanting all three.

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