The Story:

The co-operative dates back to 1936 and aims to deliver fairly priced wines of vivacity rather than power. Mostly, these are white wines, and mostly they are single varietals, that offer simple expressions of the grapes they’ve vinified.

The brand name is ‘Du Sud’ for the entry wines and ‘Les Hauts de Montarels’ for the ones aged in oak. Their top wines are called ‘1936’, marking the year the Co-op was founded. They also do AOC Languedoc wines and AOC Pezenas wines, but I haven’t tasted them.  The Alignan co-operative started in 1936 and it joined together with Neffies about fifteen years ago. Most of the Neffies wine goes under the AOC Languedoc appellation; the stuff from farmers near Alignan goes under the IGP Côtes de Thongue. For reasons of the local terroir around Alignan, this is mostly white.

These are well crafted wines with good typicity. They are justifiably proud of their Chardonnay fut de chene (‘Les Hauts de Montarels’) (Price Band B), with lovely round mouth-feel, and this punches well above its price point, albeit the growers of Meursault won’t be worried by it. If you’re after wines on the fresher side, then this is a better coop than the one in Montblanc. Excellent value.