Château Villerambert-Julien is a producer in Minervois. The village Caunes-Minervois is most famous for its marble that still is produced in small quantities. This marble has an intense blood red colour with beautiful fields of grey and white. In Carcassonne most part of the main square is paved with this marble. Some of Grenache of the Château is growing at the quarry and we were told that they had to blow holes in the rock to plant the vine. It can not be much water and soil for those plants to grow in, but on the other hand, somebody told me that the vine has 50 meters long roots and need to suffer to produce powerful grapes, so I am sure they are all right.

Water is over all a sparse recourse at the vineyard. They actually have to pump all water from the nearby mountains. Our host showed us an old concrete reservoir where the builder mixed the cement with wine instead of water as water was more rare than wine. This was a long time ago and the builder obviously did not know very much about chemistry. As wine is acid and cement is alkaline it did not result in very durable concrete.

  The Château itself is impressing and the tasting room housed in the old Chapel is magnificent. We had the opportunity to get the whole production chain explained to us. It all started by tasting the wine of the year that was still in its “cuve”.  I can not wait until I get hold of a few bottles of the new white wine made from Viogner and Roussanne. It was a dream of fruitiness and elegance. It is going to be bottled in a few days so I am looking forward to get the ordered case of it.

As boys of all ages I can not get enough of looking at the bottling and labelling machines. It is just like Santa’s Christmas workshop as Walt Disney describes it in the film. I must say I am also impressed by the gigantic harvest machines they use nowadays, even if it does not feel right to shake off the grapes – it is much more picturesque with people handpicking grapes and carry them in big cones on their backs.

The tour ended with tasting of the finished wines. Except for the white they produce rosé and red wine. We tasted a couple of excellent cepage wines – one Syrah and one Grenache, but the real experience was the Cuvée Château Villerambert-Julien 2004. This wine is made of Grenache and Syrah that have been left as long as possible before it is harvested to gain as much power as possible. This makes it very vulnerable to the weather so some years when the rain comes early they can not produce this wine. This was the case in 2005, which might be a pity as it was a year with high quality of the grapes in this region.

The process of making this wine is very long. After fermentation and having rested in the “cuve” it is matured in oak barrels for a couple of years and after that allowed to mature in their bottles before it is labelled and offered to the market. The 2004 wine we tasted was just in the labelling process which means it has matured for four years before it can be enjoyed by customers. Do not worry – the wine can be saved in a good cellar until 2014. The amazing thing with this wine is that it is an experience to drink right away. It is powerful with high alcohol content, very well balanced with a taste of very ripe dark berries, vanilla and caramel. The tannins are present as it should be, but soft and in harmony with the acidity and fruitiness. I must admit I have seldom tasted a young wine that is both so pleasant to drink right a way and have such potential for saving for a long time. It obviously pays in terms of quality to wait a little before presenting a wine to the customers even if it ties up the money for the producer.

I really hope I have the character to leave a few bottles for future consumption.

Note: The pictures above are "stolen" from the website of the Château as the weather was lousy when we were there.