Chateau Fontanche Les Terroirs St. Chinian 2006 of Sud De France is Highly Recommended by the Champagne Wishes Panel of Whom You Know
The Les Terroirs de Frontanche 2006 Saint-Chinian is a wonderful way to kick off your holiday season. This wine is a blended Syrah, which we couldn't get enough of. From the coast of France, where it seems all the best wines are coming from these days, this is quite a find. This is a great wine for the holidays with it's beautiful deep red color and smooth yet slightly sweet taste. Our palates were tickled with the taste of rich ripe fruit, like sunshine on a snowy day. This wine would be great with turkey or pork. Also great for serving with appetizers, light but full of flavor. This this the perfect wine that you can drink all night and never tire from. This is the wine we want to serve on our Christmas dinner table, which as you know will mean we need multiple bottles! Again, fear not, with such a reasonable price point we will be able to buy enough bottles to get us through our entire dinner. So now that you know what you will be drinking this holiday season we suggest you check out Sud De France's offerings for amazing Mediterranean products and great wine gifts, for everyone on your list, yes, even yourself!
I had to do some research on this wine before I drank it. I had never hear of this region of France and to really understand a good wine, it helps to know a little about the terrain and history. Saint Chinian is located north of Béziers city. Vineyards lay in coteaux, meaning that they cover one side of the hills, the ones facing at the sea. Saint Chinian is famous since the 14th century although the first vine was planted during the 9th century. The soil is made up a lot of limestone and sandstone which is perfect for growing grapes. Therefore, the region is known for its full bodied red wines. This Sud de France wine Les Terroirs de Fontanche 2006 Saint-Chinian has strong black fruit flavors that are rich and succulent. Great on the palette, it finished strong. I think it would be great with duck. Another good pairing would be with rabbit stew. This is a wine to drink now and I suggest you do.
Splendid! Delicious! Perfect! Those were three adjectives I used in description of the 2006 Saint-Chinian wine I recently sampled. It is made from three types of grapes. They include one third Carignan, one third Grenache, and one third Syrah. The first sample I tasted was reminiscent of blossom and peach. Another note from my palate indicated some hints of smokiness. This is the perfect time of year to purchase a 2006 bottle of Saint-Chinian. It goes well with that holiday dinner. It is also a perfect gift to bring to a guest for the holidays. Two thumbs up for the 2006 Saint-Chinian!
A frame of reference to help us sort out the language of French wines might be in order. A "terroir" is a "group of vineyards from the same region", that combine their know-how, share the same type of grape, and even weather conditions. By knowing the terroir, you can better define a wine's individual personality. The Chateau Fontanche has it's vineyards on hillsides, facing the Mediterannean Sea, in the South of France (Sud de France). The soil is described as clay, but it's sandstone/limestone content contribute to the flavor of the grapes. The St. Chinian is 33% Garignan, 33% Grenache, and 33% Syrah (one wonders about that lost 1%) a combination that gives us the full body of this wine. It imparts a smoky sense of oak barrels, but the tannic edge is compensated by an excellent wine-maker, Frederic Lornet, and magically, the nose give a whiff of almond blossom and peach, to balance the smokiness. This is a wine that marries perfectly with a grilled magret de canard and a simple baked potato. Duck breast is a favorite in our house, but it would be great with any grilled meats. The 2006 is a recommended vintage (Terroir-France.com), and so should be savoured now, with cheeses, game, pate perhaps. The Chateau Fontanche is in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, long known as the most productive wine region in the world. The region produces a huge quantity of reds every year, all at good prices: good to know. The bottle of the St. Chinian is visually impressive,too, perfect as a presentation gift for any host or hostess this season.
Chateau Fontanche Les Terroirs St. Chinian 2006 is Highly Recommended by the Champagne Wishes Panel of Whom You Know
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From LANGUEDOC ROUSSILLON, France
Appellation area
Situated to the northwest of Béziers in the Hérault, at the foot of the Massif du Caroux and the Espinouse, it encompasses twenty villages.
Geology
The terroir of Saint Chinian is divided by the river of the Orb and of the Varnazobres. In the north, schist and sandstones occupy 90% of the volume of the soil from 40 cm of deep. This kind of acid soil retains very little water, and the vine has to adapt to drought. In the south, limestone deposited by the sea is married with bauxite and clay.
Château Fontanche
This pretty property is the renowned Jura producer Frédéric Lornet’s counterpart in the Languedoc. Located in Saint Chinian, Frédéric owns 12 hectares of prime vineyards planted with classic SouthWest varietals.
Winemaker: Frédéric Lornet
St Chinian les Terroirs 2006: 33% Carignan, 33% Grenache, 33% Syrah.
The vines are planted in argillous soils. Climate is typically Mediterranean. Average temperatures are 14°C. Aromas of almond blossom, peach and smoked meat in this full-bodied wine with a long finish.
500 cases produced[1]
Saint Chinian Appellation
The Saint-Chinian vineyards are spread over twenty villages, North-West of Béziers. Surrounded by the Caroux and Espinouse hills and crossed by the Orb and Vernazobre rivers, it is one of the best winegrowing regions in the area and has been an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (A.O.C.) since 1982 for red and rosé wines and since 2004 for white wines. The appellation, located between the sea and the mountains, is influenced by the Mediterranean climate creating its own microclimate, which has enabled Saint-Chinian to develop its unique “terroir”.
The history
Saint Chinian owes its name to the Benedictine monk, Anhan, who founded the Saint Laurent monastery in 794 on the left bank of the River Vernazobre. He was beatified in 1102 and the monastery took his name: Sanch Anhan, which became Saint-Chinian in the Middle Ages.
From 1351 to 1465 there was a permanent struggle between farmers and abbots. Abbot Renaud de Valon was eventually given the responsibility of organizing the economy of Saint-Chinian on a more democratic basis. Yet the farmers rebelled in the next century and the religious wars threatened the abbeys’ existence. In 1536 the village was destroyed by Baron de Faugères, a Calvinist, and again in 1578 by the peasants’ revolt. The village developed in spite of the struggles between the monks and the community. In 1752 the village and its surroundings flourished, but the French Revolution was coming. Because of the suppression of monastic orders, the abbot no longer provided the poor with wheat and so they starved.
After the Revolution, industry, especially cloth and tanning, plummeted and received its final blow by a terrible flood in 1875. Phylloxera (a sap-sucking louse, which feeds on the roots) appeared at the end of the 19th century in the eastern part of the department, but arrived later in the area around Béziers, which had by that time planted its vineyards onto American rootstocks, which proved very highly resistant to the Phylloxera louse. Saint-Chinian profited from this and became a vine growing area and the old industrial labourers worked in this new industry.
After the Second World War, Saint-Chinian threw itself into the pursuit of excellence for the quality of its wines. This has become even more important over the last few decades and has helped improve the reputation of our wines on a more international scale.[2]
[1] http://www.bellwines.com/FontancheLesTerroirs.html
[2] http://www.saint-chinian.com/en.php
