Excellence from the Languedoc

Selecting the winery of the year from those entered in the 2013 Sommelier Challenge in September would be a snap if it simply came down to the winery with the most medals. By that reckoning, the Napa Valley winery V. Sattui would emerge the champ nearly every year. At the very least, it would be a contender.

And so it was this year, with V. Sattui taking 23 medals overall from 31 wines entered. But as the Director of the Sommelier Challenge, it is my task to scrutinize the evaluations of the judges (16 certified sommeliers from around the nation) and look beyond the numbers for a performance that stands out above and beyond the rest.

With that in mind, I took a long, hard look at the Champagne house Moet & Chandon of Epernay, France, which entered five wines in Sommelier Challenge V. One of the five, the 1993 Grand Vintage Collection Brut ($140), was a deserving winner in the final vote for Wine of the Year. The other four Moet wines were awarded gold medals. All of the Moet entries were impeccable in an impressive performance.

Still, there was another winery, also from France, that caught my eye. Chateau Paul Mas, a wing of Domaines Paul Mas, entered eight wines and medaled with seven. Three of those seven were awarded platinum medals and competed in the championship rounds where best of show and winery of the year are determined. The Chateau Paul Mas entries ranged in price from $8.99 to $27 suggested retail, and as I tasted each I noted with great satisfaction that they were beautifully balanced, suave and sophisticated, and most of all delicious.

The wines of Chateau Paul Mas went up against an array of superb wines from many of the wine world’s finest wine addresses and proved themselves worthy. For this reason, I have chosen Chateau Paul Mas of Pezenas, in the Languedoc region of southern France, to receive the Director’s Award as the 2013 Sommelier Challenge Winery of the Year.

This level of excellence from the hinterlands of the French wine industry, a region once known only for its ocean of generic “bulk” wine, would have been unthinkable as recently as 20 years ago. The Languedoc, which covers the Mediterranean coast from Montpelier to the Pyrenees and the Spanish border, has undergone a renaissance in recent years, led in part by visionary enterprises such as Domaines Paul Mas and Gerard Bertrand, as well as boutique producers such as Domaine Mas Jullien.

The potential was always there in a land dotted with well-kept 50-to-75-year-old family owned vineyards planted to syrah, carignan, mourvedre and grenache. But the area was so poor in post -World War II France that few families had the money or the manpower to tend the vines, then make and market their wines.

So the fate of those outstanding old-vine vineyards was up to the many vintner cooperatives that sprang up after the war, with the result that prime wine grapes were blended with lesser grapes from over-cropped vineyards to make cheap wine. It is only over the past 10 to 15 years that entrepreneurs with a vision of quality have been able to rescue the Languedoc from the wine wilderness.

Chateau Paul Mas produces wines under several affiliated labels, including Cote Mas and Paul Mas Estate. Its platinum award-winners were the 2011 Chateau Paul Mas Clos de Savignac, Gres de Montpelier ($27), 2012 Chateau Paul Mas Belluguette, Coteaux du Languedoc ($20) and 2011 Paul Mas Estate Carignan, Vielles Vignes, Savignac Vineyard, Pays d’Herault IGP ($14).

The two from Chateau Paul Mas are red and white Rhone-style blends with varying levels of syrah, grenache and mourvedre, while the simply stunning Paul Mas Estate Carignan is a single-vineyard wine made from old vines (hence Vielles Vignes). The 2012 Paul Mas Estate Picpoul de Pinet IGP ($14), a crisp white wine made from vineyards within spitting distance of the sea, also was awarded silver.

Cote Mas was awarded a gold for its non-vintage Cremant de Limoux AOP Rose ($17) and a silver for a white Rhone-style blend, 2012 Blanc Mediterranee, Pays d’Oc IGP ($8.99). Yet another Paul Mas label, 2012 La Forge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Pays d’Oc IGP ($12) won a silver medal.

These wines are not only exceptional by anyome’s standard, they’re also attractively priced. It is a beautiful thing.