Corbières & Minervois 2022 vintage rating: 4 / 5
Corbières & Minervois 2021 vintage rating: 3 / 5
Despite the rumbling autoroute that forges east-west through its heart and the sea of towering wind turbines that stand like sentinels, Corbières is still a wild, roughhewn landscape, a lumpy and scraggy expanse of vines and garrigue.
It’s a huge appellation: by far the largest in the Languedoc both in terms of production (around 270,000hl per year) and area under vine (8,300ha). As Rosemary George MW says in her 2018 book Wines of the Languedoc, ‘the particularity of Corbières is the diversity of its terroir, for both soil, which is mainly clay limestone, and climate, ranging from Oceanic in the far west to a warm Mediterranean climate on the coast.’
This diversity is a strength (varieties and blends differ significantly depending on location, and Carignan is of particular note), but also a weakness (despite its size and potential, it has only come up with one cru, Boutenac).
Corbières’ neighbour Minervois abuts the Montagne Noire on its northern flank, and also has just one cru – La Livinière.
