Powerful Banyuls

     Old Banyuls sign in the charming village of Collioure    

Dear wine lovers,

When you drive from Perpignan to the Spanish border, you suddenly leave the flat plain for mountains of steep pink schist rocks, decorated with Collioure and Banyuls* vines overlooking the Mediterranean.

And the higher you go, the more powerful the wines are. Grenache noir, which can reach up to 22% potential alcohol, finds up there the perfect poor arid soil. In effect, dry weather forces the vines to develop deep roots underneath this draining soil in order to get the minimum food and water that will permit them to produce these unique grapes. Yields are very low** (under 2,000 liters per hectare) so the wines are very concentrated. They need at least 3 years to smooth down and, to do so, the wines are put in big glass containers outside in the sun. Then they are aged in barrels to produce, depending on the time, different types of fortified wines.

Work is only manual there and you must not have vertigo to maintain vines. Low yields, tiny area production, manual work and quality make the wines pretty expensive but at the least you know what your money is spending for.

Domaine de la Rectorie, Domaine de la Tour Vieille and the monumental Domaine du Mas Blanc are the most famous wines. Tinier and more affordable are Domaine du Traginer or Clos Saint-André, especially for the white wines.

Banyuls is, like a lot of wines with high alcohol and sugar, a dessert nectar. And, of course, it will fit perfectly with Roquefort, this typical French cheese with so much character, just like Banyuls wines.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse

Any comments, edits are very welcome at contact@french-wine-a-day.com

*Listen to "Banyuls" : Download Banyuls.mp3

**Low = Bas

To see Banyuls on a French wine map (use enlarge icon to see it better) : Download Banyuls.jpg