Château Mire l’Etang
Mire l’Etang is one of the old traditional estates of la Clape. It lives up to its name; you can indeed see the lagoon from the property, which is just outside les Cabanes de Fleury on flatter land, no higher than 80 metres above sea level. There is a strong maritime influence and indeed an excess of salt in the soil can be a problem.
We met Pauline Chamayrac who has just taken over the management of the estate from her father; he is now one of her employees! She has returned to the family property after five years making wine at Domaine Aussières, the Lafite estate in the Corbières. She studied at Toulouse and is a qualified oenologist, and broaden her horizons with a six month stay in Chile. Now she is on quite a steep learning curve, taking on the administration and management of quite a sizeable estate. Altogether they have 50 hectares of vineyard land.
Pauline’s grandparents bought the estate in 1972. They lived in Fleury and ran a village shop, and sold everything to turn to wine. Her great parents had had some vineyards and made wine to sell in bulk. The grandparents bottled their first wine in 1973 - they stil have an old bottle on display - and opened a caveau de vente. Then her father took over in 1992, and she has followed in 2024. with her first serious vintage at the family estate, She treated us to a comprehensive tasting of their wines
2023 La Clape Blanc - 11.00€
A blend of Bourboulenc, the essential grape variety of la Clape, with some Roussanne and a little Grenache Blanc. About three months élevage on lees with some batonnage.
Light colour. A very salty nose with more saline notes on the palate. Good acidity. Quite a solid mouthful,
2024 Languedoc Rosé, Le Gris - 9.80€
Rosé is not a La Clape appellation, hence the default to Languedoc. A blend of Cinsault and Grenache Noir. Lightly pressed so that the colour remains very pale. Light dry fruit. Quite firm and structured with some acidity.
We talked about the current situation with Pauline observing that Corbières has problems. As it is such a large appellation it does not have a real identity - it is maritime in parts but there are also mountains. And it produces a large volume; the market is complicated, even with the connection with Château Lafite. And of course Covid created problems on the export market, especially in Asia. At Mire l’Etang they sell to Europe, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Holland, but not much to England.
2024 Languedoc Rosé, Cuvee Corail - 9.40€
A blend of Syrah, Cinsault and Grenache. Given a 12 hour maceration which makes for quite a bright pink colour. A rosé with an attitude.
Quite a rounded nose with some substance and texture on the palate. Some acidity balancing some raspberry fruit, with a rounded finish.
NV (2024) Les Brumes, Vin de France rosé - 8.00€
From 30 year old Cabernet Sauvignon vines, but as this is a Vin de France, you are not supposed to mention a grape variety on the label. Pale colour. Quite rounded ripe nose, with more body and weight than le Gris.
With the problems of salt, water from the Aude is used to flood the vineyards once or twice a year, and hopefully to send the salt down into the depths… the vines can die if there is too much salt in the soil; the salt dries out the vines - the impact is very visible. And the vines closest to the sea are grown in very sandy soil. The rest of the vineyards are clay and limestone, or argilo-calcaire.
NV (2024) les Brumes, Vin de France (Cinsault) - 8.00€
Medium red colour. Light fruit, Nicely rounded and easy to drink, which is exactly what they intended with this new cuvée.
2022 les Cistes, La Clape Rouge - 9.00€
Mainly Grenache Noir, with some Mourvèdre and Syrah and a little Cinsault. The Cinsault soften the tannins. Made in a concrete tank. Some ripe fruit and supple tannins and quite a sturdy finish.
Pauline explained that they have a very old vertical, basket press, which presses very gently so that they can use all their vin de presse. It is actually a 120 year old and a museum piece and requires a lot of manual work, and is very difficult to clean. We went to admire afterwards, and it is indeed a venerable piece of cellar equipment.
She also commented on how difficult Syrah is becoming in very dry years. It really does not like the excessive heat.
2022 Tradition - 11.80€
Syrah dominant, with Grenache and Cinsault but no Carignan. Her grandparents pulled it all up, as was the fashion at the time
Rounded ripe fruit on both nose and palate. Some subtle spice and supple tannins. A heady 15%. La Clape has to be kept in the cellar for 12 months, so you can not sell the 2024 vintage until September 2025.
2022 Cuvee des Dux - 15.00€
This spends 12 months in barrels. They age the best wine in barrel, and they select the best barrels for their top red wine, Réserve du Château. Usually this cuvée is aged in 225 litre barrels, whereas the Réserve du Château comes from larger demi-muids, of 300 or 350 litres. The majority is Grenache, with Mourvèdre, Syrah and Cinsault. Good young colour. some oak on the nose. Quite solid, rounded ripe and quite concentrated, with ageing potential.
2021 Réserve du Château - 25.00€
Dominant Mourvèdre, with Grenache and Syrah. Pauline considers 2021 the best vintage of the last five years. 2024 was good too.
Nicely structured nose. Solid ripe fruit on the nose. A structured palate, with depth. Some new oak influence. Some serious youthful potential.
Pauline talked about the amount of room larger barrels take up. They would like to enlarge the cellar, for more storage, but it is complicated as the coastal area is protected
They also make the traditional sweet Carthagène, from muted grape juice, in two versions:
Carthagène Doré
A blend of Bourboulenc and Grenache, A red amber colour, with a touch of raspberry on the nose. 160 gms/l sugar with 16%. Not too sweet with a light alcoholic bite. And quite harmonious. They do not make it every year, may be every three, and use eau de vie du Languedoc and then age it in barrel. It takes about six months for the alcohol and grape juice to marry nicely.
Next came Carthagène rouge, made from Alicante, and a very deep red colour. Some strawberry fruit on the nose. Ripe and rounded and quite intense.
Apparently unlike Pineau de Charente, there is no AOP for Cathagène. Nobody took it seriously and nobody could agree……
They also have a small plot of Muscat from which they make some Muscat Sec and also a late harvest Muscat from dried passerillé grapes. The market for Muscat is limited; it is a complicated variety as it is very obvious in a blend, even just 5%. However this wine had some sweet grapey fruit, with 50 gms/l residual sugar and the nose had that distinctive bitter Muscat note.
And then we went to the cellar to pay our respects to the 120 year old press. The old cellar has cement vats, and they have added stainless steel tanks and there is a small barrel cellar, with barrels coming from Boutes, the local cooper.
Ww talked about projects for the future. With the 2024 vintage Pauline has made their first barrel aged white wine. The fermentation was finished in barrel, in demi muids and now they are waiting to see how long the wine will remain in barrel, with regular tastings to asses the élevage.
At the moment they are certified with Terra Vitis, and are intending to move gradually towards organic viticulture. And when I asked Pauline about wine making changes, she said that she need to focus on modernising the administration systems. Indeed the website does have a rather old-fashioned feel about it. I was left with the feeling that everything is a little sleepy and that there is untapped potential for Pauline to develop.
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