Life with wine chez nous and around

Welcome new discovery of  La Clausade, a new domaine quite near us in, Mauguio, producing wines from little-known grape varieties (see below)

This is about old friends on our minds at the moment, and about a new discovery.  Those of you who have stumbled on this blog but are not particularly interested in the alcoholic liquid know that my posts are as much about friends and countryside as about the drink - our presence in France is a lot to do with our liking for wine and vineyards, and for those who run them.  And good winemakers are not just farmers or growers, not just chemists or alchemists, and not just hardworking astute business people - making wine combines all three, in all weathers.  And they are human beings who grow old so have to hand on their businesses, and they have families some of whom willingly take over from their parents but some who simply follow other paths in their lives, so that wonderful vineyards change hands, change function.

All weathers has been on our minds this summer as temperatures soar and drought begins to  affect even the deep-rooted vines.  When we came here it was a given that vineyards could act as firebreaks, but recent summers have been so dry that vines burn too.  And yields of grapes have reduced for lack of water - here in the south it is no longer sure that vines can go with out extra irrigation.

One of our favourite local vineyards, Château Grès Saint Paul, is still in business.  Its owner, Jean-Philippe Servière, is the 7th generation of his family producing wines there, he has told us he wants to retire but there is no obvious successor, and and it is not clear what the future holds, but over nearly 20  years here we have often had a warm welcome there and enjoyed many of his wines.  They are still on the shelves in our local grengrocer's

Château Aiguilloux in the Corbièeres area west of Narbonne was one of our earliest discoveries and we were pleased to call there again on our way back from a holiday  in April.  Son Georges and his wife have now taken over from his parents - we first met Georges as a restaurateur in Narbonne on his parents' recommendation, and apparently he and his wife still cater for wine-inspired events at the domaine.

Fires in the Corbièeres area were all too frequent this summer, controlled more or less by the planes we heard often passing over our house carrying water from  the seaside étangs (not my photos)

I've written often of the Chemin des Rêves which we've known for nearly 20 years, from a young family starting our in Grabels, Benoit Viot and his wife Servane have flourished as winemakers north of Montpellier, building their own home in a vineyard in the Pic Saint Loup appellation (of which he was recently président) producing also wines with the Grès de Montpellier label.  We were delighted to go back this summer with friends Judi and Alex.

The Pic Saint Loup, backdrop to the Chemin des Rêves vineyard

New wines from old grape varieties - we have discovered, via our friendly caviste (another Benoit) at O Pêcheur de Vin a new winermaker just down the road in Mauguio, called La Clausade, which specialises in wines from grapes which are disease resistant - som red, but mainly white and rosé wines from varieties I'd never heard of and which are not in any of our wine grape guides; but which are uniformly deliciious as well as unusual.  We have reordered... Muscaris, Soreli, Floreal, Souvignier gris, Artaban, names to conjure with.  It seems random to pick wine grapes for their disease resistance, but it works as well as being ecological  As always, the people who run it are added bonuses in discovering these places, and ours is becoming an area of hidden pleasures in the wine world.

A lttle further east, across the river Vidourle in the Gard, is an area, the Vaunage we often go to for meetings of our French language group (including French people trying to  improve their English as well as helping us with our pronunciation and translation.  One town/village we often visit is Calvisson, with a good winemaker theh Domaine Roc de Gachonne, whose red wine Puech du Rouge we quite frequently receive at our language group's shared lunch.  It's called multi-tasking!