UNCORK an old-vine red from Roussillon, the wine region in southeastern France near the Spanish border, and pour a Grenache-Carignane blend, perhaps, from the hot new domaine Clos des Fées. Now take one step back. In about five seconds you'll begin to understand why the artisanal wines of this region are the toast of nouvelle wine bars in Paris.
First, you'll immediately discover that, when it comes to color, there is "red wine red," and there is Roussillon red -- red on another order of magnitude. Impossibly inky and brilliant, the color is so rich, velvety and saturated it should have its own paint square at the Home Depot. There is nothing like it.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, October 06, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
Wine name: An Oct. 3 article in the Food Section about wines from Roussillon, France, said Mas de La Devèze's Côtes du Roussillon-Villages "66" was named for the region's telephone area code. It is named for the department number used in the postal codes.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Home Edition Food Part F Page 2 Features Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Wine name: An Oct. 3 article about wines from Roussillon, France, stated that Mas de La Deveze's Cotes du Roussillon-Villages "66" is named for the region's telephone area code. It is named for the department number used in the postal codes.
And if you think the color's intense, just wait till you taste the wines. Aromas of wild herbs, pine and olive; rich red-fruit flavors; fresh, firm textures: Few wines in France are as tightly woven as these. Although demand is so great that many Roussillon wines never leave France, you can still find a good selection of high-quality, well-priced examples that are now making their way to Southern California.
For years, Roussillon was known for its sweet wines, white Muscats from Rivesaltes, and succulently sweet reds from Banyuls. These still are marvelous wines. But the excitement in Roussillon now is in the dry red wines, coming from the ancient Catalan winegrowing regions near the border with Spain, and in the rugged hills away from the coast. It's a region where 50-year-old vines are commonplace; 80-year-old vines aren't unheard of, and century-old parcels and older are still producing some of the most unique and powerful fruit expressions in all of France -- something neighboring Languedoc cannot boast.
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Strong personalities
TOGETHER, Languedoc and Roussillon make up France's largest appellation, Languedoc-Roussillon, and one of the country's 26 regions (states). But the only thing that connects them, besides a hyphen and a highway, is the Mediterranean coastline that wends its way west from the Riviera. The two regions are home to two entirely different cultures, with different customs, languages and distinctly different viticultural traditions. Languedoc is the bastion of the Occitan, an ancient culture that still clings to its own language (the source of its name, the Langue d'Oc) and customs. Roussillon, by contrast, is defiantly Catalan, a culture with roots in Spain.
