Château Maris farms a pocket of the Languedoc where the Tramontane wind blows hard enough to keep the vines dry and the yields low. This is a white blend from that estate, Viognier and Grenache Blanc grown on the stony slopes of the Minervois, picked in 2020 and bottled at 13.5%.
- Viognier and Grenache Blanc, a southern French pairing.
- Languedoc-Roussillon, the sun-belt of southern France.
- 2020 vintage, 750ml, dry, 13.5% abv.
- Medium body, medium acidity, low tannin.
How it is made
Viognier brings the perfume and the flesh; Grenache Blanc brings the shape and the freshness. Both are warm-climate grapes, and in the Languedoc they ripen fully without losing their acid. The blend is a common one in the south of France for exactly that reason: one grape fills in what the other leaves open.
How it tastes
White peach and apricot first, then honeysuckle, then a citrus zest edge that keeps it from sitting flat. There is a wet stone note underneath, the kind that comes off limestone and schist soils. Medium in the mouth, dry, with a low tannin grip that is barely there at all. The floral character carries from the nose straight through to the finish.
Where it comes from
The Languedoc-Roussillon runs along the Mediterranean coast from the Rhône delta down toward the Spanish border. It is France's largest wine region by volume and, for a long time, its most overlooked. The best sites sit on limestone and schist hills where the Tramontane, a dry north wind, sweeps through and keeps the canopy healthy. Minervois, where Château Maris is based, is one of those sites.
Good to know
Viognier nearly disappeared from the map in the 1960s. By then only a few dozen hectares remained, almost all of them in Condrieu, and the grape was close to being written off entirely. It came back over the following decades, partly because growers in the south of France found it thrived in their climate. Grenache Blanc has a similar story: widely planted in Spain and southern France, rarely bottled on its own, and now increasingly valued in blends like this one.
