Jaunted

That has given them more freedom to experiment with some of the region’s obscure traditional varietals like Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignan (pictured above). Because the appellation is new, no one faults the winemakers there for deciding not to adhere to it when they just make the wines they want to make, or to continue to use sub-classifications for their specific region within Languedoc-Roussillon.

Thanks to a few favorable conditions, winemakers in the region have also embraced organic agriculture like nowhere else in France. Whereas many of the country’s better-known wine regions, like Bordeaux and Burgundy, must contend with pests like mold and mildew due to their damp climates, the south of France is windy and dry, alleviating the need for some chemical controls.

The heart of this recent green movement is in the unlikely little hamlet of Calce, in Roussillon. A man there named Gerard Gauby had been making wine there for decades before starting to grow his grapes organically, and then biodynamically a few years ago. The wines he began producing displayed a lightness and acidity (as opposed to high the alcohol content that was in style) that was new to the area, and soon he had attracted a loyal band of acolytes, not to mention a portfolio of great reviews.

Olivier Pithon, is one of Gauby’s apostles who also makes his wines biodynamically in Calce. Pithon is from a famous winemaking family in the Loire, but he chose to settle in Roussillon because of the opportunity to enact his own winemaking vision in the south.

His wines are so unique and well-balanced that they are attracting notice from international critics and are popping up in wine stores and restaurants throughout the U.S. Another nearby winemaker named Jean-Louis Tribouley is also receiving notice and praise, and he too is following Gauby’s lead, producing wines with a lightness and equilibrium that has delighted the critics.

These new French winemakers are the vanguard of the next generation, leading what should soon be a deluge of Languedoc-Roussillon wine in the American market—and saving the region’s ancient vineyards, and the reputation of Languedoc-Roussillon’s wines, in the process.

Related Stories:
· France Field Trip [Jaunted]