Joli Vin imports

Clot de L’Oum - Côtes du Roussillon Villages

The Roussillon is quite possibly what the Languedoc was not long ago – the most dynamic region in France today, home to scores of younger producers recreating the wines of this region with a polish and elegance not historically associated with the Roussillon. The key to this revival is the high altitude terroirs of Schist, Granite and Gneiss, together with some old vines and meticulous viticulture.

One such Roussillon potential-rising-star winemaking couple are Eric & Lèia Monné: they purchased vineyard land here in 1995 and began by producing fruit that for several years was sold off to the local co-op. Building on his experience at regional superstar, Clos des Fées, and driven by a passionate belief in organic and sustainable stewardship of their vineyards and the wine they desired to produce and to consume, their conversion to organic production in the vineyard, shunning the use of herbicides, insecticides and chemical fertilizers, certainly ran counter to the accepted practices at that time.

Beginning in 2001, and working from 15 hectares of vines split up among 33 different parcels in the communes of Maury and Belesta, northwest of Perpignan, they produced their first wines bottled under their own label, Clot de L’Oum (Valley of the Elms). It did not take long once the wines were tasted and written about by the likes of Jancis Robinson, that people started to take notice.

Their conversion to organics in addition to meticulous vineyard practices which reduce yields (15-20 hl/ha ave.), promote maximum maturation and health of their fruit, thereby greatly reducing the need of sulfite treatments, has resulted in delivering pristine fruit to their cellar door which, as they have witnessed in recent vintages, appears to be ripening weeks ahead of fruit on adjacent parcels. And the effect of the relatively high altitude vineyards (600 meters for their highest parcel of Syrah) has served only to enhance the intensity and freshness of the fruit, while at the same time retaining acidity.

The wines they are crafting are modern-styled in that there’s an uncanny concentration of ripe supple fruit, but they are not being drowned in a chorus of new oak. Fruit and terroir is what one will find in these well-crafted wines. What are they looking for in their wines? In Eric’s words: “minerality, freshness and fruit.”  The vineyards are between 400 and 600 metres high and on granite-based soils. “Granite is unusual in France”, continues Eric. But there’s another famous vineyard area with granite, apart from Eric’s Belesta, and that’s Hermitage!

www.clotdeloum.com