Tasting the Terrasses du Larzac in Montpellier

My good friend Sarah Hargreaves who does PR for the Terrasses du Larzac said : come and taste in Montpellier.  There are various different producers in wine shops round the town.  So a caviste crawl rather than a pub crawl.  Sarah knows Montpellier well, so I allowed myself to be guided.

First stop was the Maison Regional des Vines in the rue St Guilhem ….for Mas des Chimères, where Palma Dardé was pouring the family’s wines.  That was great start to the day.   My tasting notes may be a tad minimalist as tasting conditions were not always ideal or the winemaker was not on hand to elaborate.

2024 Pays de l’Hérault, Coteaux du Salagou, with six different grape varieties, namely Viognier, Vermentino, Grenache Blanc, Terret blanc, Carignan blanc,  and Clairette which grown with the Grenache Blanc.   Vinified in demi muids - 400 or 600 litre barrels.  A little colour.  Quite a rich nose.   Very good fruit.  Rounded and textured with some acidity and a fresh finish.  I liked this a lot.   14.10€

2025 Oeillade, Coteaux du Salagou - 12.90€

Only just bottled but already showing well.   Medium colour.  A perfumed nose, redolent of cherries and on the palate, elegant fresh perfumed fruit.  Some appealing texture.  Ripe and refreshing with a long finish.

2023 Nuit Grave, Terrasses du Larzac - 15.60€

Approximately 50% Syrah, 30% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache and just a drop, 4% of Carignan. I know that adds up to 104%, but you get the idea.  Deep young colour. Quiet tapenade on the nose.  Solid ripe and gutsy with some tannins.  Twelve  months in demi muids and blended before bottling. There was a four day heatwave at the end of August in 2023, which the vines did not really appreciate.

2023 Caminarèm, Terrasses du Larzac - 18.80€

About 20% of each of the five red varieties of the appellation, and blended before ageing for twelve months,   Good colour. Quite firm dry spicy fruit on the nose.  Nicely rounded, ripe palate, with good fruit and a balancing streak of tannin.  Youthful with ageing potential.

A great start to the day and I promised to go and visit them in Octon.

Then we moved up the road to a splendidly odiferous cheese shop, Fromagerie d’Origine for Flo Busch.  Paola was pouring her’s partner, Florian Busch’s  wines.  This was a new name to me.  Based in Jonquières.  with 10 hectares of wines.

2022 Pierre qui rolle 

A blend of Grenache Blanc and Rolle,  12 hours maceration at fermentation and ten months in demi-muids.  An old gold colour.  And quite a firm palate.  Quite tannic, structured and tight knit with good length.   Intriguing.

2022 Heureux qui….

Carignan, Grenache and Syrah.  10 months in vat

Medium colour.  Quite a solid tapenade nose.  An elegant palate with some fresh red fruit, cherries.  Quite perfumed and appealing

2022 Point du Jour

Syrah, Grenache Mourvèdre and Carignan

Medium colour. Quite firm fruit on both nose and palate.  Quite structured with a dry finish.

2022 L’Odyssée

Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah,  18 months in wood. Quite solid.  Some oak,  with balancing red fruit.  Quite rounded with a firm tannic streak.

And then it was lunch time so we headed to Copia in the Place Ste Anne, a cheerful restaurant, and a glass of Mas de Clanny rosé, which was fresh and firmly crisp and went  a treat with some asparagus.   Vanessa, who runs the Terrasses du Larzac syndicat, had joined us by now, reminding me that the Terrasses du Larzac now totals about 100 estates including three cooperatives.  St Felix and Saturnin have joined forces and Montpeyroux now works with a coop from the Gard under the name of Piemont Causses et Cevennes, and tiny coop of the village of Pegaroilles is probably about to close.   

And then we headed to another part of the city, Les Arceaux and to the Cave d’Arceaux.   The three vignerons showing their wines here had adjourned across the road for the serious business of lunch, so left us to our own devices for tasting.  And then my good friend and fellow wine writer Andrew Jefford turned up with his wife Paola, and we also found ourselves discussing Trump with a couple of Americans who are voting with their feet and house hunting in Montpellier.

Domaine Romain Portier  - an estate with vineyards in St Saturnin and Jonquières which was new to me.

La Petite Parcelle de Blanc.

A blend of Marsanne and Grenache Blanc.  Possibly co-fermented. Quite firm saline fruit. Tight knit and focussed.  I liked this a lot.

2024 Vignes d’Altitude, Vin de France

Carignan and Grenache from vines at Fozières , a village up in the hills above Lodève.

Medium colour.  Quite firm fruit, red fruit.  Medium weight with some appealing freshness.

2023 Cinsault, Vin de France

Quite light colour.  Light cherry fruit on nose and palate.  Medium weight.  9 - 10 months ageing in a concrete vat.

2022 Terrasses du Larzac

Eighteen months ageing in concrete and demi muids.   The back labels gave some percentages and vine ages, as follows.

Grenache 55 years - 60%

Syrah 37 years - 25%

Mourvèdre 23 years = 12%

Cinsault 42 years  - 3%

Good young colour. Quite firm peppery fruit on nose and palate.  Quite sturdy and youthful.  More Syrah than Grenache on the palate.

Next was Château de Jonquières, from a stunning property in the village of Jonquières.  it is a real chateau with rounded turrets.  I slept in one of them once.   And haven’t visited for a while.  

La Baronnie blanc

Twelve months in wood.,  Chenin Blanc and Grenache blanc.  A little colour.   Quite rich and leesy on nose and palate.  Some acidity.  Some weight and texture, and some impact from the oak ageing.

2025 Lansade blanc

Light colour.  slight dry nose. quite a rounded palate with nice weight and texture.  Sorry rather a minimalist tasting note here, for what was a very enjoyable wine.

2024 White label  - cuvée pour tester, ie different experiments.  In this case Carignan.  Previous years have been Syrah and Mourvèdre.  Numbered bottles.  Quite a deep young colour.  Quite perfumed fruit. Ripe with a firm tannic streak balancing the fruit.  Medium weight.  Youthful.

2023 Lansade rouge. 

Quite a light colour. Ripe fruit, easy and fresh.  Medium weight.  Sorry, an even more minimal note 

2023 Baronnie rouge

Quite a deep colour. Quite solid ripe fruit on the nose, and quite a sturdy ripe palate.  Youthful with ageing potential. 

Domaine L’Hermas

2024 St.Guilhem le Désert

A blend of 70% Vermentino, 20% Roussanne and 10% Chenin  Into barrel to finish the fermentation.  A little colour.  Quite firm fruit on the nose with a touch of oak and some acidity on the palate, as well good texture and mouthful.  

2025 Rosé

Orange pink in colour.  Quite rounded ripe fruit on the palate.  Some weight, with a streak of acidity on the finish.

2021 Carignan. St Guilhem le Désert

Quite firm red fruit on the nose and palate.  Quite sturdy. Good varietal character.

2023 Terrasses du Larzac

Good colour. Quite a ripe rounded nose and palate.  Ripe fruit and nicely balanced.  Youthful with some ageing potential.  

And then it was back into the centre of the city to a rather smart wine shop, Grands Vins de France, to taste the wines of Mas Capdaniel with vineyards in Gignac, close to Aniane.  Sophie Joullié explained that most of their vines had been planted by her great grand father in the 1960s.  She has 12 hectares in one large plot, with limestone and clay soil, facing north west towards the Larzac at an altitude of 150 metres.  The vineyards are farmed organically, and the first vintage she put in bottle was 2015. Until then the wine was sold to the négoce.  

2025 St Guilhem le Desert Blanc

Grenache Gris kept in vat.  A little colour. Quite a rounded nose, and on the palate rounded and textured, with a satisfying finish.

2023 Les Cormiers which means wild pear trees, Terrasses du Larzac

Grenache 60%, Carignan 30% and Cinsault 10%.  Syrah is not obligatory in the Terrasses du Larzac, but you do have to have three varieties.   18 months in vat.   Deep colour.  Very Grenache on the nose, with notes of liqueur cherry.  Ripe fruit on the palate with a tannic finish, but quite fleshy and ripe. with good length.  

2023 Les Vendanges de Tom, who is Sophie’s son.  Terrasses du Larzac

60% Syrah, with some Mourvèdre and a little Carignan.   The Syrah is kept in wood for 24 months.  Deep colour.  A touch of oak on the nose.  Quite a rounded, ripe spicy palate.  The oak is well integrated, and balanced with notes of the garrigues.

2024 Cinsault, 

From two separate plots that are vinified and aged separately and blended before bottling.   A plot planted in 2017 goes into barriques, while the 1957 plot spends 18 months in demi-muids, after quite  a short maceration.  It has more colour and provides the backbone. to the wine. The younger plot is more gourmande.  Medium colour. Quite a firm nose with some cherry fruit. Quite rounded perfumed fruit on the palate.  A little more body than some Cinsault.   

They planted by  selection massale, planting the rootstock first and then grafting in the vineyard after two years.

2022 Mourvèdre, Vin de France

Deep colour.  From solid nose.  And a firm rounded palate with some ripe fruit.  The Mourvèdre has very little juice, with thick skins.    30 months in barriques, including a very little new wood.   They are shifting to demi-muids.  Good potential.  

And then we headed to a café near the place de la Comedie, Pousse Pas Mémé Dans la Vigne, which was once a bank.  Bottles are kept in the old strong room.  

Jean-Yves Chaperon of Les Chemins de Carabote was pouring his wines, but unfortunately the café appeared to have last two of his three bottles so we had to content ourselves with 2021 Chemin Faisant, Terrasses du Larzac - 16.90€    And quite understandably, Jean-Yves was not happy.

Medium colour, beginning to evolve.  A lot of Syrah with some Grenache and Carignan in the blend.  Kept in vat.  Quite supple fresh fruit.  Lighter weight than some and more evolved, as befits an older vintage, with a tannic streak, but essentially very supple and drinkable and a cheerful note on which to finish the day.