Search Results for: Languedoc

Clean-crafted wines show their mettle

Clean-crafted wines show their mettle

We're suspicious of food or drink that purports to have certain health benefits. The recent boom in ‶clean wine″ is a case in point. From the marketing, we expect every low-fat vegan bottle to arrive rolled up in a yoga mat. That's not wine. But in the world of clean wine, there's a refreshing alternative that seems well-grounded in both taste and science. Scout & Cellar (scoutandcellar.com) is a 5-year-old company that makes and markets wine that comes with what they call a Clean Crafted Commitment®. It's their registered trademark. They apply it to wine that's grown with no synthetic pesticides, vinified without synthetic additives or added sweetener, then lab tested after bottling to confirm that nothing untoward snuck in. Many of the wines carry...Read More
Everything old is new again, especially in Limoux

Everything old is new again, especially in Limoux

The Benedictine monks at the St. Hilaire abbey in Languedoc definitely stole a march on Champagne. In 1531, an abbey scribe wrote about inducing a secondary fermentation in wine flasks stoppered with cork from forests in nearby Catalunya. That was more than a century before Dom Perignon went to work in the cellars of Champagne. Languedoc growers have been making sparkling wine for almost 500 years now. In accordance with the French regulations introduced in 1990, it's called Crémant de Limoux. And it's a bargain. Selling at $17–$20, the Crémant de Limoux Rosé Brut St. Hilaire from Côté Mas is great for simple sipping and even better paired with food. Winemaker Paul Mas pushes the limits of allowed grapes for the AOC. The wine contains...Read More
La Forge Merlot cozies up to ratatouille pizza

La Forge Merlot cozies up to ratatouille pizza

We always thought drinking good wines with pizza was our dirty little secret. But then we found that great pizza is a given in California's Sonoma wine country. We were especially taken by the pizza-wine pairings at Comstock Wines. Unlike us, the Sonoma folks couldn't enjoy pizza and wine while the New England Patriots. As football season begins to wind down, we're exploring a wider world of wine with pizza. As we learned from pizza guru Rosario Del Nero of Bertucci's, pizza can support an infinite variety of toppings. Just show restraint. “When it comes to toppings, less is more,” Del Nero cautioned. “You don’t want to overwhelm your pizza.” A mixed half case from wine distributor Esprit du Vin (edvwines.com) arrived at the end...Read More