Lafage

Roussillon is far more than just a suffix tacked on to the Languedoc. In actuality, there is a strong case for abandoning the double-barreled Languedoc-Roussillon wine region altogether. The differences between the two regions lie in language, culture and history as much as they do in terroir. Roussillon is a Catalan region, with more in common with Barcelona than Beziers and for nearly four hundred years up to 1659 the region was ruled by Spain rather than France.

The region is France's sunniest, with 325 days of sun on average each year; more than enough to ripen grapes. Yet unlike the flat plains of the Languedoc, growing grapes here is not easy. The vineyards are planted on the eastern end of the Pyrenees and the soils are poor and rocky. The Tramontane northwesterly wind blows through most days too, bending trees and vines as it goes, and only rarely does it rain. As is so often the case, only vines and olive trees survive here.

Jean-Marc Lafage's family has been growing grapes here for six generations but it was Jean-Marc who had the ambition to stop selling the grapes and to found a domaine. He and his oenologist wife Eliane founded Domaine Lafage in 1996 and the estate now runs to some 138ha of vines across Roussillon with parcels in the Agly Valley, Aspres and Perpignan. They specialise in old vines. The Cuvee Centenaire Blanc takes its name from the age of the Grenache Blanc vines, and with that age comes the pronounced minerality and concentration that makes Roussillon wines stand out from the crowd.

The reds in this part of France usually garner the most attention - and rightly so, the Agly Valley with its black shale and layered schist soils in the shadow of ruined Cathar castles is one of Europe's most exciting terroirs. Lafage's Cuvee Authentique is a fantastic example. However, the whites are equally as exciting and prove the worth of the unsung Grenache Blanc. Until recently France's fourth most planted white grapes (Sauvignon Blanc did not overtake it until the 1980s), it is a fantastic vehicle for terroir with intense minerality and fabulous depth of fruit. There are few better value wines in this list.