The SOMM Journal

December 2014/January 2015

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60 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014/2015 IT IS NOONTIME IN BANYULS-SUR-MER, THE little seaside town carved out of the foothills of the Pyrenees on the French side of the Spanish border. Already, a lunchtime crowd has fled the scorching sun of the beach and marina across the street to set - tle into the shaded terrace of Romuald Peronne's Le Jardin de St Sébastien. As they peruse their menus, many are sipping an icy, pre-lunch cocktail called "Le Catalan," a blend of apricot juice and Banyuls, the famous Vin Doux Naturel (VDN) that takes its name from the town. Not surprisingly, Banyuls the wine is ubiquitous here. Peronne's own Domaine St Sébastian winery shares a wall with the restaurant, and around the edges of the eatery's terrace are large, green, bul - bous, stoppered glass containers called bonbonnes, each holding several gallons of slowly aging Banyuls. At the edge of town, vines that produce Banyuls, Banyuls Grand Cru and their red sister dry wine, Collioure, creep down the steep, rocky, terraced hillsides. The region's warm seas and cool mountains provide the perfect climate to produce the sweet nectar and tart acidity of a great VDN. These three appellations are all parts of Roussillon, a region that has "an incredible range of wines," according to Eric Aracil, Export Director of Vins du Roussillon. "With the versatility of our wines, we can approach the preferences of every wine drinker in the United States." Roussillon AOP and IGP classifications produce red, white, rosé and fortified sweet wines, mostly from local grapes—Grenache Noir, Blanc and Gris, Carignan Noir, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Lladoner Pelut, various Muscats and Macabeu or Malvoisie—in addition to Syrah, Marsanne and Vermentino coming from the Rhône Valley and from Italy. Annual total produc - tion, coming from the 2500 wine estates and just over 400 independent and cooperative wineries, is about 98 million bottles. In spite of this variety, it is the region's sweet wines—the VDNs—that are the ones that most charm tourists as well as French consumers, who buy more Roussillon VDNs than any other French fortified wines. The process for making these wines is simple in concept, but it has many variations. The primary methodology is to add neutral pure alcohol to the grape must (juice, pulp, skins) to stop fermentation at mid- point. However, VDNs can vary in color (blanc, rouge and tuilé, or tile-colored), in the varieties of grapes used, in their balance of sugar and acidity—fresh fruiti - ness versus the baked, oxidized character of the wine that will eventually be bottled from bonbonnes such as those on the St Sébastien's terrace. VDNs may be aged in glass, wood or cement vats. Of the five primary classifications of Roussillon VDNs—Banyuls, Banyuls Grand Cru, Rivesaltes, Muscat de Rivesaltes and Maury—the two Banyuls are the ones best known outside of France. Like the small, mountainous Maury in the eastern part of Roussillon, Banyuls and Banyuls Grand Cru are pro - duced primary with Grenache Noir grapes (a mini- mum 50 per cent in Banyuls, 75 per cent in Banyuls Grand Cru which must be aged at least 30 months), while the much-larger Rivesaltes region extensively uses the fragrant Muscat varieties for the well-known historic Muscat de Rivesaltes appellation. Rivesaltes can produce a wine of that name, employing a variety of red and white grapes. With their baked, oxidized flavors and relatively high alco - { sweet wines } Vin Doux Naturel (VDN) from Roussillon exhibits sweet nectar backed by tart acidity. PHOTO: J.GIRALT/© CIVR Sweet Spot Roussillon's by Roger Morris

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