JONQUIERES, France — It is perhaps a small coincidence that several of the wine producers in and around this small village in the Coteaux du Languedoc disdain the terms “chateau” or “domaine” in favor of the more humble “mas,” which translates to home or house.
This could be a coincidence, but I think not. My hunch is that everyone wants to be like Olivier Jullien, proprietor of Mas Jullien. For it was Olivier, some 25 years ago, who first rejected the old order in the Languedoc. It was Olivier who stressed the importance of terroir, returning to the vineyards of the hillsides, and taking the focus away from volume to place it squarely upon the idea of quality.
These concepts are fundamental in the great wine-growing regions of the world, but they were revolutionary in the Languedoc at the time. Olivier Jullien changed all of that.
“Olivier is a much better winemaker than I am,” Charles Pacaud of Domaine La Croix Chaptal told me. “My target is to someday make wines as good as those at Mas Jullien.”
This is not faint praise, for Domain La Croix Chaptal’s wines are among the finest in the Coteaux du Languedoc. But Mas Jullien’s are better.
“I strive to match the right vines with the right soils and the right terroir,” Jullien explained. His approximately 50 acres of Syrah, Carignan, Grenache and Mourvedre are farmed organically, with some biodynamic practices as well, though there is no effort at certification.
He decided to call his domaine “Mas” Jullien because, as he explained, “As you can see, there is no chateau. Just a house and a cellar.”
The modest disposition of the domaine evaporates upon tasting the wines of the estate, which are riveting. They are on a par with anything you might imagine from France’s most noble properties.
The mostly Grenache 2005 Les Estats d’Ame is but one example. It is fresh and spicy on the palate, with subtle layers of red berries, supported by fine tannins; an exquistely elegant wine.
“Since I started making wine more than 20 years ago, freshness has been my passion,” said Jullien.
But as good as this wine was, it hardly prepared me for the big guns — three vintages of Mas Jullien’s benchmark Coteaux du Languedoc rouge: 1999, 2001 and 2005.
This trio of reds was everything the finest reds of the region can be, exhibiting power and depth without heaviness, remarkable complexity, a stunning purity of fruit, refined tannins, hints of minerality and garrigue, and always, always superb balance.
The ’99 and ’05 Mas Jullien Coteaux du Languedoc are the two best wines I have tasted over six days in the Languedoc. They are not only a triumph of viticulture and winemaking, but a searing message to every other vigneron in the region.
It screams from the rooftops: “
This is what you can do. This is what the Languedoc can be!” Traditional grapes planted on the hillsides, in the schist and the chalk and the clay, vinified with an eye on quality instead of yield, and a commitment to — no, a passion for — freshness and balance.
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