The Story:

It’s a classic story of a relatively sleepy domaine revived by new owners; in this case, less typically, two German wine distributers, Rolf and Renate Freud, who bought it at the start of the century. Since then, there’s been a move towards quality. The majority of their wine is AOP Pezenas or AOP Languedoc, but about a quarter of their production is Côtes de Thongue.

Of these, look out for a well balanced chardonnay-sauvignon blend, called Pabiro (Price band C), and a white with much more sense of attack, a marsanne-sauvignon blend, called Laubret (Price band C). The two reds are pretty standard Languedoc blends, though it’s worth noting that the Combelles (Price Band C) a Syrah-Cinsault blend is another in the growing army of sans sulphites wines.

The other one I drank which wasn’t a Côtes de Thongue but which is worth noting is their “Carignan Zero”. Unlike Arjolle, who have an elaborate de-alcoholisation process behind their ‘Zero’ range, this is just grape juice, pure and simple, but attractively packaged in a bottle and beautifully balanced between syrupy and fresh. As they say, it means ‘those who don’t drink alcohol can be with you and not feel excluded. No one should be excluded.’ So it looks like a red, but tastes like grape juice, but very nice grape juice for all that. Not wine, but from Cotes de Thongue terroir!