Languedoc-Roussillon: Hip Hop du France
What do you get when you combine an abundant grape-growing region, a history of hot summers, talented interlopers, and a coastal location that tends to melting pot influence? Innovation, and some of the best wine values from France.
Join Jill on a daydream tour of Languedoc-Roussillon.
Goes great with: a work shirt and pair of shades, pride of place, restless creativity
I’m not a huge Hip Hop head, but when I hear it in French, I dig it. It sounds transformed – more exotic in the Gallic tongue, and the beats still make me want to shake my moneymaker.
Back to the map: Languedoc-Roussillon (say roo-see-yawng) is that southeastern curve on the nine-sided star that is France, just north of Spain on the Mediterranean. Check it: it‘s France’s biggest wine producing region, hot, even with winds coming down from the glaciers and in from the sea. It’s mechanized – they grow grapes like wheat in the flatlands. Thing is, ‘til recently, the guys growing weren’t the guys making – farmers just sold to bulk producers to make pretty pedestrian vin ordinaire.
Then they got smart. International winemakers arrived, combining new technology with trad techniques, planting new varieties. The Languedoc isn’t all flat, and microclimates and a new small-plot mentality led wine geeks to really tweak their recipes to take advantage of terroir.
These site-conscious domaine wines from L-R are cheaper than more famous French appellations, and probably more interesting. Like a good DJ at an underground club, they’re thinking innovation, and they want to keep the momentum going.