WE drink more Vin de Pays than any other French wine. Vin de Pays, a term roughly meaning “country wine”, was first used legally in 1973.
A Vin de Pays must come from a specific place and meet fairly stringent quality standards, but otherwise allows the winemaker much more freedom than the traditional, quality wines sold as “appellation contrôlée”, especially in the choice of grape varieties and styles.
Growers in Languedoc have been the most creative. Under the regional Vin de Pays d’Oc label, they have not just experimented with well-known grape varieties traditional to other parts of France (such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot), but have made world-class wines from grapes such as Syrah and Viognier in a style all of their own.
Vin de Pays represents about 30% of total French wine production and accounts for nearly 40% of all the French wine on the shelves of UK supermarkets. Before the Vins de Pays came on the scene no wine from Alsace bore the name of its grape variety on the label; now 92% of all French wine sold in the now familiar way as a “varietal” is Vin de Pays d’Oc.
Above all, and despite the fall in the value of sterling against the euro over the past year or so, Vin de Pays offers great value for money, although returns for the growers are not always very generous.
Most of them are nearer £5 a bottle than £10, and as standards have risen markedly over the past few years, they now compete well with wine from the southern hemisphere, while retaining a rather winning Gallic accent.
An annual competition to discover the top 100 Vins de Pays has been published by the trade magazine Off Licence News.
This year growers across France entered 1,224 wines. The chairman of the judging panel, master of wine Tim Atkins, believes that the trophy winners were “the best ever” and “the range and diversity of the wines are a match for anything produced outside France”.
I got a chance to sniff and taste my way through 92 of them and I press-ganged about 20 of my friends to help (I say press-ganged, but it’s amazing how many friends you discover at times like these!) It’s always good to have a second, or even a 22nd opinion.
This week I’ll report on the dry white and rosé wines. Next week I’ll deal with the reds and sweet white (there are no sparkling Vins de Pays).
The standard, as you might expect, was high and consistent, though that consistency also means that there are no really great wines – just a lot of good ones.
The judges singled out the Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays for special praise, but I was struck by wines made from indigenous southern French varieties, including Muscat and the relatively unsung Grenache Blanc. By and large, my friends agreed.
The Viogniers were good too – which I don’t think I would have said even five years ago. Viognier is a tricky variety.
Fruit from young vines can be insipid. Now that the Viognier vines in the far south of France are maturing a bit, an exciting range of exotic fruit flavours is much more evident.
Viognier blended with Muscat can work well too as in La Différence Viognier/Muscat 2008 (£4.91 at Tesco), though we almost all preferred the fruit of Viognier alone in Laurel Miquel’s Nord-Sud, Viognier 2007 (£8.04 at Tesco). This shows the heady floral, cum peach and pear flavours of Viognier at its best, and then delivers loads of spicy fruit in a lingering aftertaste. It won a special trophy as best Viognier in show, and rightly so.
I found some of the Sauvignon Blancs from the Languedoc just a little thin and tart. Did they pick the fruit just a bit too early in order to keep their acid levels high?
My favourite was a Sauvignon from one of its more traditional stamping grounds, the Loire Valley (one of only two Loire wines that made it into the top 100) – Bougrier’s La Roche Dame 2008 (£6.49 from Laithwaites).
The other, Rémy Pannier, Sauvignon 2008, was enjoyable too – light, fresh, clean and green. A Sauvignon from its original homeland of South West France, Rive Haute, 2008 (£8.99 from Adnams: www.adnams.co.uk ) was delightfully creamy, with loads of tangy green pepper and gooseberry fruit – and it won the trophy for best Sauvignon in show.
Two pink wines from the same producer met with general approval: Colombelle 2008 (£6.99 at Oddbins) – fresh and juicy with cherry fruit and Rive Haute Tannat/Cabernet Rosé (£6.99 from Coe Vintners: www.coevintners.com ) – a much more mineral, even slightly gamey wine.
By now you have probably got the message: Vins de Pays have a lot to offer and we’ve never had them so good.
I found some Sauvignon Blancs from the Languedoc just a little thin and tart. Did they pick the fruit just a bit too early in order to keep their acid levels high?