RAISE A GLASS

The wine region of Roussillon produces only 2% of France’s wine.

But by golly it makes a noise in terms of its wines, its beauty and the passion of its wine producers.

It’s often linked by a hyphen with another famous wine region, as in Languedoc-roussillon.

I was thrilled to visit Roussillon in its hyphen-less glory.

This is Catalan country, on the border with Spain, the southernmost vineyard in France. On three sides, Roussillon is surrounded by mountain ranges and on the fourth, the blue Mediterranean. It’s an amphitheatre; a sun trap. No surprise then that its wines are dominated by sun-loving black grapes: Carignan, grenache, mourvedre and syrah.

Whites are well-established too, with grapes such as marsanne, white grenache and muscats. Vins Doux Naturels wines (fortified sweet wines) are famous here. I’ll share some thoughts about them another time.

The region’s beauty, and vinous potential is exceptional. I had dinner with Master of

Wine Justin Howard

Sneyd (right), a Brit who has been drawn to

Roussillon, and has vineyards and brand Domaine of The Bee.

He told me: “As soon as I came here I fell in love with it. The Maury region in particular has an amazing potential to create highly respected wines at the level of say Gigondas.”

I met one-time rugby player Serge Baux (left) and tasted his organic wines. He and his wife Marie-pierre welcomed me into their home and shared amazing Catalan food with their wines.

It was a joy to be immersed in the food and wine culture; what grows together goes together.

Wines to try from producers I visited include: Dom Brial Dom Ici Rosé (£9.75, winestoreeccleston.co.uk) – a very pretty grenache pink; Domaine Lafage

Côtes du Roussillon Blanc

Centenaire (£12.75, urbangrapes.co.uk) – white from old grenache vines, bursting with quince and dried honey; Mas Baux Mataro Boy (£24, winemonkey.co.uk) – Mourvèdre is known as mataro here (Serge is featured on the bottle in his rugby days); Domaine of The Bee Club has annual packages from £72.99 or buy from domaineofthebee.com. I enjoyed The Bee Side (£20, grenache) and Bee Pink 2022 (£16, grenache noir, grenache gris, syrah).

I was a guest of Vins du Roussillon. Discover more online at roussillon. wine or @roussillonwines on Instagram

Jane is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Find her on social media and online as One Foot in the Grapes.