{"id":2068880,"date":"2026-08-16T09:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/2026\/08\/16\/alarics-mountain-a-wall-that-makes-the-wine\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:53:16","slug":"alarics-mountain-a-wall-that-makes-the-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/2026\/08\/16\/alarics-mountain-a-wall-that-makes-the-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaric’s Mountain: A Wall That Makes the Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a long time, the Corbi\u00e8res was a wine region people simply passed through without stopping. With ten million hectoliters produced regionally, it is an appellation known for its robustness but lacking in subtlety, structured around cooperatives whose focus on volume has long overshadowed the work done on individual plots. What Domaine de La Lause has been doing since 2019\u2014on 10.5 hectares nestled in the foothills of the Montagne d\u2019Alaric in Monze\u2014is the opposite approach: treating Languedoc with the care usually reserved for Burgundy.<\/p>\n\n

The reasoning starts with geography, not marketing. The Montagne d’Alaric is not just a backdrop\u2014it is infrastructure. This limestone massif, which rises to 600 meters, acts as a thermal regulator: it absorbs the most intense Mediterranean winds, moderates summer heat waves, and creates nighttime temperature fluctuations that slow the ripening of the grapes. On the estate\u2019s clay-limestone slopes, composed of ancient alluvial deposits, gravel, and small stones, this temperature differential produces what winemakers call \u201ccoolness in a warm terroir\u201d \u2014 a productive contradiction that few Languedoc vineyards can claim with such precision.<\/p>\n\n

The Path and the Trail<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Two plots exemplify this approach in their most thoroughly documented forms. The first is named La Lause<\/em> \u2014 an Occitan term referring to the flat limestone used in southern French construction, which makes up part of the plot\u2019s soil. Facing northeast along the Bretonne stream, it yields a Syrah vinified without crushing, 100% destemmed, with a two-day cold maceration at 15\u00b0C before fermentation is allowed to proceed naturally. The wine is aged for nine months in Burgundian oak barrels. The second plot, Sainte-Colombe Road<\/em>, takes its name from the trail that climbs toward Montagne d’Alaric. It is planted with Grenache Gris, whose vines\u2014trained in the goblet style\u2014are nearly eighty years old. These old vines naturally produce low yields, which fall below the profitability thresholds required for a commercial wine business but are in harmony with a philosophy where concentration comes from the soil rather than from technology.<\/p>\n\n

The winemaking process for the Grenache Gris “Chemin Sainte-Colombe”<\/em> This exemplifies a level of winemaking rigor rarely highlighted in descriptions of southern wines: the grapes are pressed as whole clusters without prior crushing\u2014to limit color extraction from the variety\u2019s pink skins\u2014using only low pressure, with the first and last juices systematically discarded. Cold settling lasts twenty-four hours without the addition of sulfur. Fermentation begins in stainless steel tanks at 14\u00b0C and is completed in barrels and demi-muids that have been used for four and five vintages. No malolactic fermentation: aromatic freshness takes precedence over richness. This wine received 94 points in Decanter.<\/p>\n\n

Winter 2024 as a Litmus Test<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The 2024 vintage of Corbi\u00e8res Blanc reveals more about the estate\u2019s identity than any statement of intent ever could. On the night of May 17\u201318, a hailstorm struck the higher-elevation plots\u2014Marsanne and Vermentino\u2014while partially sparing the Roussanne, planted at a lower elevation. This year\u2019s cuv\u00e9e is composed of 90% Roussanne, with 7% Vermentino and 3% Marsanne. Only 818 bottles were produced. This is not a limited edition in the commercial sense of the term: it is a record of a May night, captured in a blend shaped by the weather rather than by a set of specifications.<\/p>\n\n

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Technical Details<\/strong>: The 2023 Grenache Gris \u201cChemin Sainte-Colombe\u201d is aged for 9 months on fine lees in barrels and demi-muids that have held 4 and 5 vintages, without malolactic fermentation, and bottled in July 2024. D\u00e9canter awards it 94\/100. The 2023 \u201cLa Lause\u201d Syrah, 100% destemmed and aged for 9 months in Burgundian oak barrels, receives 90\/100. The 2023 Corbi\u00e8res Rouge AOP\u2014a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourv\u00e8dre incorporating Lledoner Pelut, a now-rare Catalan grape variety\u2014received a score of 91\/100 at the 2025 International Wine Challenge.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Since its takeover in 2019\u2014and under the leadership of Jeanne Delaunay since 2023\u2014Abbotts & Delaunay has put forward a simple premise: that the Corbi\u00e8res region is capable of expressing the distinct character of individual plots comparable to that of Burgundy\u2019s vineyards, provided that each hectare is treated with the same analytical rigor. The Domaine de La Lause is living proof of this.<\/p>\n\n

The question that remains open\u2014and one that only the next decade of vintages will be able to answer\u2014is whether this emphasis on terroir can, over the long term, forge an identity as distinct as that of the appellations that, before Corbi\u00e8res, succeeded in making geology a cultural selling point.<\/p>\n\n

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For a long time, the Corbi\u00e8res was a wine region people simply passed through without stopping. With ten million hectoliters produced regionally, it is an appellation known for its robustness…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2053269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30493],"tags":[80550,80548,80553,80551,80549],"class_list":["post-2068880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wines-and-spirits","tag-abbotts-delaunay-corbieres","tag-grenache-gris-from-old-vines-languedoc","tag-montagne-dalaric-winery","tag-monze-organic-corbieres-wine","tag-syrah-corbieres-single-vineyard-selection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2068880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2053269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2068880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2068880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2068880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}