Just a quick reminder that Aldeby Wines has a stand at the Royal Leamington Spa Food and Drink Festival, that runs tomorrow and Sunday in the Pump Room Gardens at the bottom of the Parade in the town centre.

If you are in the area and have a bit of spare time come along and say hello!

Ian

This is an important question, particularly if you find a wine from the region that is a little more expensive than usual.

The answer is the same as for any other region from Bordeaux to the Grampian Hills in Victoria, or Burgundy to the Central Valley of Chile. In other words yes they will age very well, but only if they have been made carefully, using grapes from (fairly) low yielding vines, and only when the winemaker has decided to make a wine for aging.

I think the secret for picking wines for aging from Languedoc is to look for the better regions, and the better producers. If you look at the wines on our site, this would immediately push you to L'Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup from AOC Pic-Saint Loup, and Plan de l'Om from the Terasses du Larzac, perhaps with Mas de Valbrune from AOC Coteaux du Languedoc Cabrieres. Now all of these domains harvest the grapes at low yields, often below 25 hl/ha, they are all meticulous in their care of the vines, with L'Ermitage using Biodynamic techniques and the other two either zero, or very low levels of chemicals purely to treat pests and diseases if only absolutely necessary. In the cellar all three are careful to only allow healthy fruit to be used, and the fermentations are long and slow, with the extraction very carefully managed, and the marc pressed at very low pressures. Aging is also lenghty with careful use of mainly old oak only if they are absolutely sure it will benefit the wine. Interestingly the blends of the wines vary, with L'Ermitage focussing on mainly Syrah and Grenache, Plan de l'Om on these plus Carignan, and Valbrune on mainly Cinsault with Syrah.

But does all this really make a difference, and do the wines really improve. Well it is only my opinion, but over the last month or two I have tasted/drunk five vintages of l'Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup Cuvee Saint Agnes - 2000 - 2 and 2004 - 6. The results were fascinating, the wines were all unmistakably from the same producer, with a very characteristic note of spice and almost vin d'orange on the finish, and the same (but developing) black fruit aromas and flavours from the Syrah. The youngest wines were definitely still dominated by fruit, but with age the wines started to develop some lovely gamey character, and even more complex spice, the tannins were also developing, though never aggressive to begin with, the took on a real soft texture.The oldest wine still showed some fruit, and I believe it is now at its peak, but that it will stay there for a year or three yet. For me the most interesting thing was the overall quality of the wines, they are definitely improving year on year, the 2004 was very good, the 2005 better and the 2006 very complex, full of flavour and superbly balanced. It is obvious that Pierre Ravaille is comfortable in his winemaking and can now extract that last few percent of the potential of this great domain.

If you are happy to ook outside the best reputed areas, then it is occasionally possible to find a producer who makes fantastic wine that will age for many years, in an area that is only allowed to make a humble Vin de Pays. I am happy that Mas d'Agalis and the Domaine des 1000 Roses do just that. They use exactly the same approach as the domans in the so called best areas, but if anything are even more obsessive about the health of the vines and grapes, and the care with which they make the wine. The both wines from Agalis and the Pierre Figee and Cuvee Lea from 1000 Roses are great examples of brilliant and ageworthy wines from Languedoc.

But what about the whites? Well that is for another post!

Ian

I just decided that I needed to post a quick comment on what I drank last night.

We were in the middle of cooking when my wife suggested that I open something a bit different, so I struggled into the cupboard and dragged out a bottle from the back. I knew it was from Bordeaux, but I didn't realise that it was so old. What I had pulled out was a bottle of Chateau Haut Corbin AOC St Emilion Grand Cru Classee 1985.

Now I do like the occasional St Emilion, as I like older Merlot based wines, but I did think that this one had the potential to be too old, But we were very plesantly surprised. I was a brick red colour, with an even paler rim, the nose was dominated by leather, and other tertiary aromas like wild mushroom (in a good sense) and hints of spice. The palate was also full of leathe, smoke, and animal flavours, with plenty of roast meat and gravy, but somewhat surprisingly there was also a bit of fruit mainly blackcurrant in character, but also with a bit of raisin. It had a nice balance and the persistence of flavour was exemplary. Overall it was really good old claret, in the Merlot style, and a pleasure to drink as a change from the Languedoc wines we normally consume. Interestingly I have managed to find an old cellar list which tell me that I paid the princely sum of £8.49 for it in 1989!

I must search out what other potential treats I have got lurking at the back of the cupboard!