Domaine des Jougla – St Chinian Ancestrale 2005 Full Complex Flavors in a Ready-to-Drink, Everyday Wine
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Vineyards on the Mediterranean (photo claes lofgren)
It’s time to head south again to the wild and wonderful Languedoc Roussillon for amazing wines with price tags like the good old days. Hilltops and scrub and pine trees and deep gorges with turquoise cascading water. And, the wine – colors of deep garnet and flavors of mint, leather, raspberries, pepper and blackberries. Does that sound good?
Bob and I went combing through the vineyards of the Languedoc Roussillon several months ago and found a little stunner of a wine you can de-cork every day. It’s that good and it’s that inexpensive. It’s called Domaine des Jougla and it comes from a wine growing area. called St Chinian which was awarded its own appellation back in the early eighties because of its superior soil (schist, clay, and limestone) and the passion of the winemakers there. If you talk to anyone about Domaine des Jougla, they will tell you the wines are a reference for the area.
The Languedoc Roussillon stretches along the rim of the Mediterranean from Arles westward down to Collioure, which is almost to Spain. there are a lot of wine-growing areas (AOCs) like Corbieres, Minervois. Faugeres, and St. Chinian. Back in the old days in the Languedoc Roussillon, quantity was everything and quality was, well, Plonk, plonk, plonk! Now, the good growers realize that because of the increased competition from all over the world, the Languedoc has to change.
The best growers have come to grips with the fact that quality is what is going to save their livelihoods. By quality I mean low yields, more extraction, riper grapes, hand harvesting, and rigorous grape selection. All of this good stuff is starting to happen in the Languedoc Roussillon today. It’s definitely happening at Domaine des Jougla.
Domaine des Jougla is located in Prades-sur- Vernazobre, village of 200 people. This little hamlet is one of the communes that is part of the St Chinian growing area and that can put St Chinian on its bottles if 100% of the wine comes from there and meets a couple of additional quality requirements.
Here’s what Paul Strang in his (Languedoc Roussillon The Wines and Winemakers) says:
This is a typicité house, but by no means stick-in-the-mud; benchmark Saint Chinian, in fact. Spend a little time in the tasting room and you will find that most of the Jougla customers are relieved to find that Alain is not trying to achieve fifteen degrees of alcohol, that he is not over-oaking the wines, or aspiring to membership of the avant- garde. Rather, they have come to buy wines which flatter rather than kill food.”
The famille Jougla who has worked their property for many generations, makes their red St Chinian Ancestrale from a vineyard that is very close to the Mediterranean Sea and right on the dividing line between the schist soils of the mountains and the limestone soil that was raised from the sea when the Pyrenees were forming.
Domaine des Jougla’s location means it has the benefit of two soil types: the schist which produces wines with mineral notes, some coffee and smoky aromas and scents of the garrique (those rocky outcropping laced with lavender and herbs) and the calcaire (limestone) which makes a wine with bouquets of fresh black currants, raspberries, and cherries and a backbone that allows for some wood ageing. The Jougla St Chinian Ancestrale is made from Mourvedre (40%), Grenache (30%), Syrah (30%).
I don’t know about you, but just thinking about Jougla makes me want some in my glass tonight. Maybe with some peppers roasted on the grill and a fat pork chop stuck with herbs and spitting olive oil. I know I don’t want to waste an evening meal with a compromise wine. There is no need to when things like this are around. Don’t you agree? Cynthia Hurley