Fitou – quality in southern Languedoc

Fitou is at the very southern edge of Languedoc, just before it changes to Roussillon. It is a region that has since long tried to keep a high quality profile. This region, basking in sun, with mild winters, was consequently the first to get an Appellation Contrôlée for red wines in the Languedoc. They were awarded AOC status already in 1948 when the rest of Languedoc was busy making cheap table wine.

Today Fitou covers 2,500 hectares, stretching almost from the seaside up to the mountains, the Massif du Corbières. The Carignan grape thrive in the poor and dry soils here and produce quality grapes, giving the wines a good structure. The Fitou growers are keen to keep Carignan, elsewhere often considered a poor grape. In addition to Carignan they use some Grenache, giving finesse and some softness, and two relative newcomers, Mourvèdre and Syrah, to add complex aromas and tannins.

There are some 500 growers in Fitou (not all of them on the picture, right) but only 35 individual producers, so the co-operatives play an important role. There are five coops, for instance the well known Les Vignerons du Mont Tauch (picture), making excellent wines like for instance the Cuvée Les Quatre (12€ at the winery) and Terroir de Tuchan. Another co-operative, Cave des Vignerons de Fitou, makes a spicy, well balanced and elegant wine called Domaine de Roc Nègre. Among the individual producers you should look for, for example, Château Wiala whose Cuvée Tradition 2003 is round and full with a good structure and aromas of cherries and cherry pits giving it a nice additional punch, or Château des Erles made by the omnipresent (it sometimes feels like) Lurton brothers Jacques and François. Their prestige cuvée is very full-bodied and you can also look out for the somewhat less expensive Cuvée des Ardoises.