Languedoc wine survival tips

Some Wines to know.
The region has several sub-regions and classifications which can be very complex for an outsider.

The main regions:
(These are primarily known for their reds and occasional rosés)
Corbiers, Fitou, Minervois, Saint Chinian, Montpeyroux, Pic St. Loup, St. Georges d’Orques
St. Saturnin, Coteaux de Languedoc, Faugères, La Clape, St. Drézury
Costiers de Nimes

To tell you which to drink is like telling someone that has never eaten anything before which one or two foods they ought to try. Try them all, compare and taste the difference. There can be good and bad from each one but, if you want to know which I tend to personally enjoy more, I would put Minervois, Pic St. Loup, St. Drezury, Saint Chinian, Faugères and Fitou at the top. Coteaux de Languedoc makes so many different wines and incorporates so much terroir it is difficult to generalize.
St Saturnin, La Clape, Corbiérs and Costiers de Nimes on a lower tier and the rest in the middle. I have had pleasant surprises with my lower ranked wines here but generally they are made on a greater scale and sold to grocery stores for people who just want a cheap drinkable glass of wine for familial consumption.

Languedoc is not famous for its white wines but they make some decent ones. Pic Poul de Pinet is the most popular because they only make white in this region, it is inexpensive and they are supposed to go with the local shell fish.

Don’t turn up your nose at Rosé if you have time. While it may not be a very serious meal wine it can be a refreshing change on a hot afternoon. There are a variety of rosés out there which are very different in taste. It is not made, as some people believe, by mixing red and white wine together. There are different techniques for making rosé including the processing of red grapes as if they were white and separating the skins immediately so the tannins have very little impact on the end product.

Muscat is a sweet white that is particularly popular in the South. There are 3 main regions for muscat: Frontingan, Lunel and Rivsaltes. They each have their disciples, I am not amongst any of these camps. I can attest to the fact that when you taste them together there are discernable differences but I can never remember what they are, Rivsaltes more mineral? Frontingan sweeter? Typically it is taken as an ‘’apertif’‘ before a meal or with foi gras in the same way as Bordelaise take Sauterne with their foi gras.

Banyuls. I have friends that practically sing sonnets at the sight of Banyuls. Each of these sonnets would contain reference to the ‘’chemical marriage’‘ of chocolate and Banyuls. Many chocolate afficionados take their intense chocolate appreciation to another level with a small glass of Banyuls. In my experience this sweet port like drink has never failed to make desert more special.

Don’t forget there are good individual domains in areas that don’t have the big reputations and there are under-performing, over- priced bottles from domains that are coasting on the reputation of their region.

General Tips

Domains usually run off a range of offerings of differing quality and price. Often there will be a "grand cru" (although they may not always call it that) this is the wine they are staking their reputation on and it is the most expensive from each year and often requires the longest aging, an AOC (more about that later), something for more pedestrian consumption, often sold young and then maybe an experiment with some different varietals. Then they may offer a white and a rosé.

Don't look for ''monocépage'' or single varietal wines though some vintners have started puting out all merlots for tourists and the foriegn market and some experiments with all carignan wines have yielded some pleasant results. Generally the wines you find in France and all the AOC wines in the South, as far as I am aware, are blends. The blends used in particular regions are largely predetermined by centuries of oenology determining which local varietalls on certian soils blend most harmoniously. The regional AOC determines what those blends are.
AOC or appelation d'orgine controlée,
means less and less for the consumer. Basically it ensures that the wine was made in a certain region conforming to whatever rules that AOC has established for its wines. Which is not to say that a wine that does not earn the AOC lacks quality, it may be that they used different percentages of varietals than what the local AOC stipulate, or it may be that they are new in town and their grandfather never owned a domain. Hopefully it is a guarantee of a certain level of quality or it won’t be a very good reflection on the region.

Vin de Pays
This is another distinction that some wines get when they are recognized by an outside body for being good regional wine and certain guidelines are followed. This used to be considered inferior to AOC but that is no longer the case. One can find certain vin de pays priced in 100s of Euros now and probably more.

Vin de Table
This is generally not a good sign. This is basically a ‘’fit for human consumption’‘ label. Its like an advertisement saying ‘’guaranteed not to make you go blind’‘.

Other things you can look for as potential indications of quality:

If the bottle has an indented bottom.
This is a more expensive bottle type than the flat bottom and it is more suited for aging wine. The logic is that if they bothered to put it in this type of bottle they thought it was reasonably worthwhile.

‘’Recoltant’‘ written at the top of the bottle.
This means the grapes were hand picked. The logic is that the grapes going in had better quality control.

Chateau, Mas or Domain name
They are clearly identifying themselves as the producers so family credibility is on the line.
Mis en boutielle sur la Domain/Chateau
They did everything on the spot and presumably quality controlled and take responsibility for the whole shebang.