Len de l'El (Loin de l'Oeil) - Côtes de Tarn & Gaillac, France

Len de l'El is a grape that I fully expected to only be able to try in a blend.  When I first came across it, it was in a white wine from southwestern France and it made up about 40% of the blend.  I had never heard of it before and for the longest time I didn't see another bottle that contained any Len de l'El in it, so I figured that might be the best I could do.  One day, though, I walked in a local shop that I usually only have average luck finding unusual wines in, and right up by the cash registers was a display featuring wines that were 100% Len de l'El.  I naturally picked a bottle up and began to wonder if perhaps Len de l'El was more common than I thought.  The answer, apparently, is no, as those two bottles are still the only bottles that I've been able to find that use the Len de l'El grape at all.  It's kind of amazing the unusual things you can find in places you might not expect so long as you keep your eyes and your mind open to them.

So today's grape is, obviously, Len de l'El, though both bottles that I tried spelled the name of the grape Loin de l'Oeil, and some sources refer to the grape as Len de l'Elh.  Loin de l'Oeil is the "proper" French spelling, while Len de l'El(h) is the spelling in the local Occitan dialect.  No matter which spelling you prefer, the grape's name translates into English as "far from the eye."  In his Grapes and Wines, Oz Clarke says that the grape is so named because "the clusters have long stalks, and so are a long way (well, relatively) from the eye, or bud, from which they sprang."  Pretty much every source I've consulted seems to buy this explanation, so that's good enough for me.

The grape is thought to be native to the Gaillac region of France, which we visited when we took a look at the Fer Servadou grape.  It was at one time a major component of the white wines from Gaillac, but, like so many other grapes, its prevalence and prominence fell drastically after the phylloxera epidemic.  It is prone to a host of grape diseases and tends to yield less prolifically than its frequent blending partner Mauzac so many growers elected to plant more Mauzac following the phylloxera outbreak.  In order to preserve Len de l'El in the vineyards of Gaillac, growers in the area decided to make a small percentage of Len de l'El compulsory in the area's wines when the AOC was established for the region in 1938.  At the time, a minimum of 15% Len de l'El was required in all Gaillac Blanc wines.  This undoubtedly helped to save the grape from extinction, and it has rebounded nicely since then, with plantings increasing five-fold over the past 50 years to a total of just under 2,000 acres as of the year 2000.  In 2007, the AOC regulations for white Gaillac wines changed so that winemakers can now use either Len de l'El or Sauvignon Blanc for that 15% that had previously been reserved solely for Len de l'El.  It's difficult to say whether this change will have a negative effect on plantings of Len de l'El in the long run, but given the respect for tradition in Southwest France, it seems unlikely that Len de l'El will slip into oblivion anytime soon.

As mentioned above, I was able to find two different wines that were made at least in part from the Len de l'El grape.  The first wine that I was able to try was the 2009 Genouillac "Burgale Blanc," which is a blended wine from the Vin de Pays du Comte Toloson near the Gaillac region of France.  This wine was 40% Len de l'El, 35% Mauzac and 25% Sauvignon Blanc.  I picked this wine up locally for around $10.  In the glass the wine was a fairly light silvery lemon color.  The nose was reserved with aromas of white pear, green apple, lemon and something just a little cidery.  On the palate the wine was medium bodied with high acidity.  The wine was pretty simple with a bit of lemony citrus and green apple and not much else.  There was a kind of prickly sensation on the tip of the tongue while drinking this and I wasn't 100% sure whether it was just really lively acidity or whether there might have been a touch of residual carbon dioxide kicking around in there.  This is a solid, refreshing summertime wine, but that's about it.  It represents a decent value at around $10 but isn't the kind of thing that's going to blow your mind.

The second wine that I tried was the 2010 Domaine de la Chanade "Les Rials," which is a 100% Len de l'El that is barrel fermented and aged for a brief time on its lees (though I can't find any specific information on types of wood or lengths of time in barrel and on the lees).  The wine is from the Côtes de Tarn, which is located just on the western edge of the Gaillac region.  I picked this bottle up locally for about $9.  In the glass the wine was a medium lemon gold color.  The nose was fairly intense with red apple, baked pear and apricot fruits along with a very distinctive leesy, cheesy kind of character. On the palate the wine was medium bodied with fairly high acidity.  It was just off-dry and had flavors of ripe red apple, apricot, pineapple, mango, and grapefruit along with a yeasty, cheesy kind of taste as well.  This wine really started to open up and get more tropical as it approached room temperature, showing best with just a slight chill to it.  I really enjoyed this wine and thought it was an excellent bargain at only $9 a bottle.  It was fruity, friendly and a little sweet, but there was a nice depth to it from the lees contact as well.

Duras - Gaillac, France

Last week we took a good, long look at the Fer Servadou grape and the regions of Southwest France where it can be found.  Fer isn't exactly widespread, but it is definitely grown in a wider variety of regions than its running mate Duras.  Duras finds it home almost exclusively in the Gaillac region of Southwest France (just northeast of Toulouse), with only a little grown in the Côtes de Millau just down the Tarn River to the east.  And that's it.  Duras isn't grown anywhere else in France or in the world, as far as I know.

As mentioned in that Fer post, Gaillac is a very old wine region with evidence of vineyards going back to the first century AD, predating planting and production of their illustrious neighbors to the north, Bordeaux, by a few centuries.  Barbarian invasions in the Early Middle Ages pretty much shut production down for awhile, but it was revived here, as in many places in Europe, by the church around the 10th Century.  The wines achieved some degree of fame during this time, and England in particular was a very enthusiastic market.  Gaillac suffered as so many Southwestern French regions did at the hands of the Bordelais who controlled the shipping of wines into and out of the port at Bordeaux.  Stiff taxes made the cost of doing business prohibitively high for many, and the region's reputation the global scene suffered as a result.  Phylloxera and two world wars have also taken a heavy toll in the more recent past.

Which is a shame, because in addition to the wealth of interesting grapes in Gaillac, the region is also blessed with a good climate for grape growing and with many interesting terroirs.  The Tarn River runs through the center of the region and many vineyards are planted along its banks on gravelly, pebbly soil with a high clay content and chalk subsoil.  As you move away from the river, you move into some of the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.  The slopes get steeper around here and the soil base is mostly sandstone.  The most important climactic feature of the region is the vent d'autan wind that blows up from the southeast.  It's a dry, hot wind that helps to prevent fungal disease for the vines during the ripening season by blowing off the damp, cool conditions that fungi thrive in (which is an especially nice feature, since Duras is particularly susceptible to several of these fungi).

About the Duras grape itself, there isn't much to say.  It's unclear where the name of the grape comes from, except to say that it has no connection with either the Côtes de Duras near Bordeaux or the Durasa grape from the Piedmont region of Italy.  Duras buds early, which can be a problem in Gaillac as Spring frosts are common enough to be an issue.  The only thing known about its family history is that it is one of the parents (along with Petit Verdot) of a nearly extinct Burgundian grape known as Tressot.  It is the most widely planted red grape in Gaillac, covering about 1000 hectares of land in 2000, which is about 10% of all plantings in Gaillac.  Like Fer, there is a planting requirement for Duras in Gaillac, meaning that for growers within the AOC boundaries, at least 10% of their red vine plantings must be devoted to Duras.  Red wine from the Gaillac AOC must contain at least 40% of some combination of Fer and Duras, with Syrah and Gamay generally making up the difference.

I was able to pick up a bottle of the 2008 Genouillac "Burgale Rouge" bottling from my friends at Bin Ends for about $10.  This wine is 70% Duras, 15% Fer and 15% Syrah.  In the glass, the wine had a deep, inky purple-ruby color with a violet rim.  The nose was a little shy with some aromas of black cherry and blackberry fruit, but there was also a meaty, black-pepper character to it as well.  On the palate the wine was on the fuller side of medium with medium acidity and fairly high tannins.  There were stewed black fruit flavors, charcoal, black cherry, blackberry, smoke and a lot of black pepper.  The fruit character was a little lean and muddled, but the earthy, smoky, peppery characteristics were there in spades.  The whole time I was drinking it I was wishing that I had a nice grilled steak au poivre to eat with it.  As it is, if you're a fan of Rhone-style Syrahs that are heavy on the black pepper, this is going to be right up your alley.  It's also a great value wine at only $10.

Fer Servadou - Marcillac and Gaillac, France

The southwest of France is perhaps its most consistently overlooked region.  It is common to go into a wine shop and find bottles from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Rhone Valley, Alsace or the Loire Valley with little trouble.  Languedoc-Roussillon is showing up on more and more shelves and wines from the Jura and Savoie have been a staple in geekier wine shops for many years.  But outside of a few isolated outposts (notably Cahors and Madiran), Southwest France goes largely ignored by most wine consumers, which is too bad because there are a lot of exciting grapes being grown there that either aren't grown anywhere else on earth or are grown in very limited quantities elsewhere.  The price is right for most of these wines as well, since the region's low profile means there isn't a large worldwide demand for its wines.  Many of the best examples can be had for extraordinarily low prices.  In short, Southwest France is a great place to go hunting for unusual bargains.

Geographically, the region broadly defined as Southwestern France is located just south of Bordeaux and stretches south towards the Spanish border.  It is bounded to the west and east by the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea, respectively.  Though it is located very close to the sea, there was no major seaport in Southwestern France, so the growers and vignerons had to ship their wines north to the port at Bordeaux.  The problem was that the merchants in Bordeaux had their own wines to sell and enacted a series of policies that was designed to squelch any competition from other regions.  Since the people of Southwest France didn't really have any other options for shipping their wines, they were at the mercy of the Bordeaux merchants for centuries and struggled to establish a reputation for their wines abroad.

In 1189, Pope Alexander III decreed that a town called Saint Jacques de Compostelle (today known as Santiago de Compostela) located in the far northwestern corner of Spain was a Holy City.  Holy Cities were a big deal back then, and a huge number of people began making pilgrimages to the site.  Since nobody was flying around in airplanes and the sea route wasn't practical (nautically or financially), everybody making the pilgrimage ended up passing through Southwest France on their way to the Holy City in Spain.  Foot traffic equals economic opportunity and many of the villages that exist in Southwest France today were set up as way-stations for pilgrims coming to or from Santiago.  It is thought that many of the unique grapes grown in Southwest France today arrived via some of these pilgrims, most likely those on their way home from Spain.

One of the more interesting grapes from this region is called Fer Servadou.  Those of you who are up on your Latin will recognize that Fer looks a lot like the Latin word for iron (ferrum).  The grape is so named not because the grapes or leaves have a rusty color to them, but rather because the wood for this vine is extraordinarily hard.  Fer has a number of synonyms, the most common of which are Mansois (used primarily around Marcillac) and Braucol (used primarily around Gaillac).  It is grown throughout Southwestern France where it is often used as a blending grape.  It has long been a key component in Madiran where it is used to soften the harsh edges of Tannat and provide color and aroma, though it is being supplanted by members of the Cabernet family.

Fer is perhaps most important in the Marcillac region, located just northeast of Cahors in the northeastern part of Southwest France.  The vineyard areas of Marcillac are located in the valleys of two streams that run through the area, the Ady and Créneau.  The earth here is rich in iron oxide, and, as a result, the soil and rocks in the area are a distinctive red color.  Wine has been made here since at least the Middle Ages, though it took a serious hit when phylloxera struck.  The vineyards were completely wiped out during the infestation and were only saved, somewhat ironically I suppose, by the discovery of coal in the area in the mid-1800's.  The coal mines produced a lot of thirsty workers so many of the old vineyards were grafted and re-planted to slake the local workforce.  The mines were closed in 1962, and plantings in the area dropped again, but a few producers banded together to create a cooperative.  The move helped them obtain VDQS status in 1966 and full AOC recognition in 1990.  There are a scant 180 hectares under vine in Marcillac, and nearly all of it is devoted to Fer.

I was able to find a bottle of the 2010 Domaine Du Cros "Lo Sang del Païs," which means "blood of the countryside."  I picked it up from my friends at The Wine Bottega for about $15.   Domaine Du Cros is owned by Philippe Teulier.  Philippe's father got started in 1982 with a single hectare under vine.  Today, Philippe farms 25 hectares in total, making him the largest independent grower in Marcillac.  All the grapes on his estate are hand picked and the winery is built into the steep hillsides of the region in order to take advantage of gravity during the winemaking process.  The "Lo Sang del Païs" bottling is his entry level wine made from the youngest vines on the estate (and representing about 2/3 of his production).  The wine is fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel before undergoing malolactic fermentation in large neutral oak foudres.  In the glass, the wine was a deep, inky purple-ruby color.  The nose was nicely aromatic with boysenberry, sweet black cherry, fig and spice.  On the palate the wine was medium bodied with fairly high acidity and fairly high tannins.  There were tart cherry, blackberry and wild raspberry fruits with some cranberry and leather.  It was a bit of a surprise to get so much sappy black and purple fruit on the nose but tart, red berry fruit on the palate.  Overall, the wine was a little sour and a little thin.

Gaillac is located just southwest of Marcillac, right outside the town of Toulouse.  Archaeological evidence has shown that the vineyards in Gaillac were already in full swing by the first century AD, though they likely go back a few centuries before that.  Through the years, Gaillac has had their share of boom and bust times, through barbarian invasions, church occupation and their on-again/off-again trade relationship with England.  Today, Gaillac is the second largest area of the Southwest in terms of volume of production, and the wines come in all kinds of different styles.  Sparkling wine is especially important here, and has a history that pre-dates Champagne production by at least 100 years.  The method used is similar to the méthode ancestrale used in Limoux, and is known locally as the méthode gaillacoise (though the AOC laws stipulate that it must be labeled as méthode traditionnelle).  There is also something called gaillac nouveau that is made from Gamay grapes vinified in the same way as the more famous Beaujolais Nouveau.

Fer is important in Gaillac, but not to the extent that it is in Marcillac, though it is required by law that the local growers' AOC plantings be comprised of at least 10% Fer in Gaillac.  Domaine Philémon is located near the Vere river in the northeastern part of Gaillac.  I'm not sure what percentage of Fer Domaine Philémon has planted, since it doesn't look like they have a website, but what I do know is that the Vieules family (who owns the estate) has farmed this region since the early 1800's and farm wheat, sunflowers and grapes in equal measure.  I can only find mention of two wines that they produce: the "Perle," which is a white blend of Mauzac, Len de l'el and Sauvignon Blanc, and the "Croix d'Azal," which is 100% Fer, though they use the local term Braucol.

I was able to pick up a bottle of the 2009 Croix d'Azal from my friends at The Wine Bottega for about $13.  I believe Curtis Liquors in Weymouth and the Spirited Gourmet in Belmont also carry this wine.  In the glass, the wine had a deep, inky purple-black color with a very narrow violet rim.  The nose was nicely aromatic with crushed blackberry and black cherry fruit with a little smoke, licorice and wet leather.  On the palate the wine was on the fuller side of medium with fairly high acidity and fairly high tannins.  There were dark, black flavors with blackberry and black cherry fruit, charcoal and smoke, black pepper (which was especially strong on the finish) and a funky leathery kind of taste.  This wine was much more rustic than the Marcillac, but was also deeper and more complex.  It was also much more balanced and well-structured and I had to check the price tag a few times to make sure it was really only $13.  This wine is an extraordinary value and would be fantastic on any food with a smoky char to it.  If you're a fan of backwards, rustic Rhone style reds, seek this wine out.

I should mention that most of the information for this post is from Paul Strang's South-West France: The Wines and Winemakers, an indispensable historical resource as well as an interesting guide to the producers of the region.  People interested in learning more about Southwest France would be well advised to pick up a copy of this book.