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The
wines of Clot de l’Oum, Roussillon, France
One such Roussillon potential-rising-star is Eric Monné (right): he
purchased vineyard land here in the 1990s, but it was 2001 that was
his first proper vintage. Altogether he has a substantial 18 hectares
of vines split up among 33 different parcelles in the communes of
Maury and Belesta in the Agly valley, north of Perpignan. He works
organically. I tried four vines, one from debut vintage of 2001, and the
three different cuvées from 2002. They’re striking impressive
wines: a little impenetrable at this early stage but full of promise
for the future. If anything, their intense savouriness reminded me a
little of the wines of the south west of France. They are
modern-styled in that there’s plenty of fruit, but they aren’t
oaky monsters. It seems that the effect of the relatively high
altitude the grapes are grown at has been to enhance the intensity of
the fruit and retain acidity. It will be interesting to see how these
dark, savoury wines evolve. Prices are still sensible: I wouldn’t be surprised to see
these increase as the winery establishes a reputation and track
record. These wines are available from Grand Cru Wines (gcw@wanadoo.fr),
and prices (including VAT and duty) are indicated in brackets. Clot de l’Oum Numéro Uno 2001 Côtes du Roussillon
Villages Caramany Clot de l’Oum Numéro Uno 2002 Côtes du Roussillon
Villages Caramany Clot de l’Oum Saint Bart Vieilles Vignes 2002 Côtes du
Roussillon Villages Caramany Clot de l’Oum La Compagnie des Papillons 2002 Côtes du
Roussillon Villages Caramany Wines tasted March 2004 Clot
de l’Oum revisited In
February 2005, I had another chance to meet Eric Monné and taste his
wines. I chatted some more with him, to get a feel for what he was up
to, and where he is heading. If your vision is for becoming a
winegrower, Eric says that the Roussillon is still a relatively cheap
place to chase your dreams. ‘I was born in 1959, and the price of
vineyards in the Roussillon is the same now as it was in 1959’, he
states. The problem is, you can buy the land cheaply but you have to
work hard to get things going. ‘Last year I planted 1 hectare of
Syrah on granite’, he says, ‘and it cost me GBP£15 000.’ The
right to plant a hectare costs around £1000, but you don’t need to
buy planting rights because there are so many parcels. This year Eric
tried to restructure his vineyard holdings, an operation that involved
selling some parcels, but it proved tough to sell any. What
is he looking for in his wines? ‘I can sum it up in three words:
minerality, freshness and fruit’. An admirable goal. He’s working
organically to get the best effect of the terroir. The vineyards are
between 400 and 600 metres high on granite-based soils. ‘Granite is
unusual in France’, says Eric. But there’s another famous vineyard
area with granite, apart from Eric’s Belesta, and that’s
Hermitage. Wow! However, Eric admits that his first motive for buying
back in 1995 was aesthetic – vineyards that looked nice – on
advice from a friend in Minervois. How
do you achieve freshness? Altitude is a factor in a region like this,
and another important influence is soil management. If it’s done
well, you end up with deep roots, which maintain water availability
through the hot summer. Another important effect of soil management is
in maintaining acidity during ripening for longer. During phenolic
maturation of grapes, alcohol tends to go up while acidity decreases.
But the two aren’t necessarily pegged to each other. In 2004 Eric
says he experienced and inversion between phenolic maturity and
alcoholic maturity for the first time. All the organic domains
experienced this inversion, he claims. As a result, he was able to
harvest Syrah at 11 degrees alcohol with fantastic acidity, and still
had phenolic maturity. That’s remarkable. So
is this a full time gig for the multitalented Eric? Not yet. He worked
as an engineer in Holland with the European Patent Office. His wife
lives in Perpignan, and he still works part-time to make ends meet as
he establishes himself as the producer of some of the Roussillon’s
finest wines. Clot
de l’Oum La Compagnie des Papillons 2003 Côtes de Roussillon
Villages Caramay Clot
de l’Oum La Compagnie des Papillons 2002 Côtes de Roussillon
Villages Caramay Clot
de l’Oum Saint Bart Vieilles Vignes 2003 Côtes de Roussillon
Villages Caramay Clot
de l’Oum Numero Uno 2003 Côtes de Roussillon Villages Caramay see
also: wines of the
Languedoc-Roussillon |
The Roussillon is the new Languedoc, or possibly – bearing
in mind its Catalan roots – the new Priorat. While Languedoc
vineyard prices have gone through the roof in recent years, the
Roussillon is still affordable, and with the success achieved by the
likes of Domaine Gauby, new projects are popping out all over the
place. The key to this revival is the high altitude terroirs of
schist, granite and gneiss, together with some old vines.