We are very proud to discover that Tamlyn Currin, a writer at JancisRobinson.com, has included us in a review of some of the top winemaking “Estranhièrs” in the Languedoc-Roussillon.

We’re in very good company and this is the kind of content that makes you want to subscribe to Jancis’ purple pages.  It’s a great compilation of winemakers for people who are eager to discover the amazing diversity of the Languedoc Roussillon.

Tamlyn has also written some of my favorite reviews for my wines to date.  The Mojo has “sassy red berry fruit” (Awesome. I’ll be using that a lot.)  The Syrah has “Damson by the bucket load” (That’s a type of plum. One that we actually grow on the vineyard.)

And the Proprietor’s Reserve review goes back and forth between long, narrative sentences and sharp, captivating notes. The review matches the wine.  I’m very proud of my parents and me. 🙂

O’Vineyards, Proprietor’s Reserve 2006 Cabardès 16.5+ Drink 2010-2015

Six barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon, 10 barrels of Syrah and 12 barrels of Merlot. Fermented and aged in new French oak for 18-20 months.

A perfume that made me close my eyes, just to breathe it in. Sweet damson, spiced dried fruit, figs and wet tea leaves. Rich and chocolatey, with plenty of dark plum tang and cinnamon. This tastes much more American than Languedoc – something that is more or less what I have noticed in all their wines. Very long. Velvety. Hedonistic. (TC) 13.5%

Toward the end, I wonder if I’m really making American-styled wines and whether or not making new world wines is mutually exclusive with being true to the Languedoc terroir. But I don’t want to dwell on that right now.  I want to dwell on velvety hedonism.  I really love these reviews and I’m so happy to be featured on Jancis’ site. She wrote a lot of the reference material that got my dad and me into wine in the first place. And Tamlyn is a charm.

The rest of our reviews have been incorporated into the website for each wine: Mediterranean Mojo, O’Syrah, Trah Lah Lah, Les Americains, and Proprietor’s Reserve.

To discover the other estates reviewed in the article “Estranhièrs in Languedoc-Roussillon“, you’ll have to subscribe to the Purple Pages!   You’ll get to read about some of my good friends in the Languedoc and Roussillon.  The estates included in the reviews are Rives Blanques, Domaine Treloar,  Domaine Ste-Croix, Domaine Jones, Chateau D’Angles (which we actually considered buying in 2004!), and Chateau des Estanilles (who has a long overdue Love That Languedoc episode in the pipes).

I took clips from George Frêche’s speech at ViniSud to explain why he should adore my website.  The video’s in French, so I wrote up the whole thing in English for you!

Six reasons Georges Frêche loves Love That Languedoc.

1. “You don’t need seniority to be good. You just need to be smart”I get a lot of crap because I’m only 24, I’ve only been a winemaker 5 years, and the website isn’t even 4 months old. Yet I want to come in and change everything like some inexperiencd upstart.  Well, Georges knows that you don’t need seniority!  Heck, there are NO fourteenth generation web designers.  Also, I think a large part of our success on Love That Languedoc can be contributed to our cooperation with individuals and groups that DO bring some wisdom and seniority to the table.
2. “Take what works and throw out what doesn’t work.”I know, right!  This sort of try everything and keep what works is founded in an empiricism that I can really get into.  I didn’t know how Love That Languedoc would play out (and I still don’t! It could go a lot of different directions!)  But I knew that I couldn’t wade through the administrative back channels, building a project through conventional means.  I just launched. And it worked.  So… he’s gotta keep me now, right? 😀
3. “It’s our fault if we’re in a crisis.  We are the masters of our fate.”Georges comes down on winemakers a little hard on this point.  But let’s say that I agree that collectively, we are responsible for the crisis.  It’s not you or me or that guy… but all of us.  And I also agree that we are masters of our fate.  The entire wine industry (not just Languedoc-Roussillon or France) leaves its fate in the hands of journalists and critics.  A few exceptions exist.  Most of the exceptions are massive corporations that have found ways to leverage their size into selling power.  Very few winemaking regions have a public image that they control.  Or our idea of control is to send press releases all the time.  But today, it’s our responsibility to cultivate an audience and give our message to them directly!  (e.g. Love That Languedoc)
4. “Manifestations turn the majority of people against our message by annoying them.”This just reminds me of my wine-alerts project.  We have to get our winemakers to take our infamous street-blocking manifestations to the web.  In the real world, only the French see our manifs and it just annoys most of them.  We alienate.   On the web, we can manifest with a positive message with our clients overseas.  That is so much better than alienating/annoying your neighbors and tourists.
5. “Today, we need to be on the GLOBAL market.”If you want to talk global, you have to talk web.  It’s just stupid simple.  If you have the budget to put billboards and print ads and Maisons du Languedoc everywhere, that’s great.  You should totally continue doing that.  However you should ALSO do the web thing which costs like pennies by comparison.  And if you have no budget but you have fifteen minutes per week, it’s time to start going online.  There are people around the world who will listen to you.  And that’s Love That Languedoc.  I want to bring wine from the region to monitors around the world. And it’s working. So… you gotta love me, right?
6. “Politics bedamned, we need smart people.”I bet you thought I was going to say I’m super smart.  But that is not my point.  Freche says he needs smart PEOPLE, not just one smart person.  Love That Languedoc is succeeding because it brings together tons of smart people.  There are smart people in this region and they have opened their doors to this new project because they see the potential power of communicating our message to the world!  If I have convinced you that Georges Freche loves Love That Languedoc, or if I’ve convinced YOU to Love That Languedoc, please please please visit the website and talk about it to all the smart people you know.  Link that thing up.

I really hate manifestos.  I think that most of my favorite movements start to die the day they write down what they’re really trying to do… like defining the movement is overly restrictive and dogmatic.  But I was busy writing up a general presentation of Love That Languedoc, and I found myself falling into this militant prose that sounds a ton like a manifesto.  Well, if I go around saying “no manifesto” all the time, then I’m still being just as dogmatic and restrictive as if I had written down my goals.  OH WELL.  Here it is:

I refuse to leave our fate in the hands of the global press who are, at best, mildly curious about our region.  And, at worst, totally oblivious to it.  Aside from a few rare examples, the world’s largest wine producer is also the world’s most ignored beauty.

Well this is the part of the movie where the downtrodden Languedoc takes off her horn-rimmed glasses and lets her hair down and the popular kid (or Henry Higgins, depending on what age you are) suddenly realizes that the coolest girl he knows was there under his nose all along.

Love That Languedoc is my personal project to show the world what it’s missing and now it’s developing a new branch.  I want to teach our winemakers how to communicate (without relying on journalists or  critics or ME) to a world that is ready to hear them.

I guess I’m thankful that the region needs me.  But the day I’m unnecessary will be a great day indeed.  We have an amazing advantage in sheer number of winemakers.  And our wines are distributed globally as both prestigious cult winesand large volume convenience store wines.  So people are already talking about us and our wines.

The next step is responding to that conversation.  We need to start training our winemakers to check email and set up a google alert for every estate in the Languedoc-Roussillon.  If only 1% of our winemakers spoke up every time somebody mentions their wines online, we would flood the Internet with our voices.  We could show our consumers that we appreciate their drinking habits.

And once winemakers start communicating successfully with the consumer, it’s much more likely that they will be willing to adopt more advanced online tools like a blog or a twitter.  And they’ll be much more likely to “get it” because it’s part of an authentic foray into communication and not some contrived business effort with no ROI.

And on that day, I’ll just be a happy little winemaker who runs a video blog for the fun of it.  And who will laugh about the old days when he would accidentally write a manifesto while trying to explain why he blogs.

There.  So I guess the conclusion is nice because it points out why this manifesto is silly.  I only blog because it’s fun.  I’m happy that it’s increasing my exposure and wine sales and I’m definitely finding ways to maximize the synergy between my blog and my website.  But ultimately, the blog is for fun.  And sometimes I get these lofty goals to sign everybody up for Google Alerts or whatever.  But ultimately, even those initiatives are an attempt to make my blog redundant.  One day, when everybody does their own online promotion, I’ll be useless.  And it’ll just be for fun again.

Until then, sign up for a freaking Google Alert.

I’m throwing a Flickr party on December 19th at my vineyard. There will be free wine, good company and lots of photo opportunities. Please consider attending! Almost all the invitations are going out through Flickr so it’s a big group of strangers with a common interest in documenting the Languedoc with their photography.

On a lot of the flyers, it says there’s a 5€ entry fee but that entry fee is waived for anybody who sets up a free Flickr account or already has one.

You are welcome to the vineyard all day and you’ll have the opportunity to visit the winery and enjoy the peaceful vineyard atmosphere before the party gets started. The main festivities will be from 16:00 – 21:00, with small trips to la Cité de Carcassonne scheduled throughout the day for people who want to visit the castle.

I’m already getting positive RSVPs from as far away as Barcelona. If you live in the area, and want to have some camera fun, flash mob at Domaine O’Vineyards.

Domaine O’Vineyards
885 Avenue de la Montagne Noire
11620 Villemoustaussou
Saturday December 19th
16:00h – 21:00h

Ryan O’Connell
Tel 33 630189910 / 33 963063172

I just got back from a long two weeks of tastings around Western Europe. We went as far north as Normandy (Cherbourg) and we went all the way down to Logrono in the Rioja region of Spain. We drove past a lot of vineyards on our tour, and I have to make a confession. I love the Languedoc.

I cannot deny the beauty and character of every wine country we drove through. I can’t deny that there are talented winemakers everywhere we traveled.

But I have to admit that I love my region, the Languedoc-Roussillon, more than any other place I’ve visited.

Every beautiful place we visited sort of made me miss the Languedoc a little more.

What makes us different? Obviously, there’s a great terroir. But the wonderful thing about terroir is that EVERY wine country has its own unique terroir. Ours isn’t necessarily BETTER than the others. It’s something else that draws me to the Languedoc.

I think it’s the opportunity. The Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the largest wine producing regions in the world. We’re responsible for something like one third of France’s wine. And a decade ago, we were producing 10% of the GLOBAL wine supply just in this one area. But despite this vast size and importance, we are one of the least recognized areas.

Well I’m going to change that. Check out www.love-that-languedoc.com where I’ll be running around the Languedoc-Roussillon with my camera. I’m going to be interviewing everybody I can find. We’re going to show the Internet and the New World that the Languedoc is a vibrant place full of opportunity and energy. If you’re reading this, I’m very grateful that you’ve been following my vineyard adventures. But NOW, I’m hoping you’ll want to follow my Languedoc adventures as we rediscover every wonderful part of the Languedoc-Roussillon.