Terre de Loup

Terre de Loup
Terre de Loup was a bit of strange one as far as things go, we headed to Berlou to visit Domaine Rimbert and the Caves Cooperative de Berlou, and the Caves de Rieu Berlou. However on arrival in the village, neither of these was apparent – it was only when asking a local where we could find them that it became obvious that the Coop was operating under 3 different names depending on where you looked or who you spoke to! The shop itself was one of the most boutique coop shops we came across and the wines weren't generally too bad – again it was just a case that they really weren't all that exciting either. We started with the “Collection Blanc Viognier 2005” which was exactly what it said on the bottle – a pretty decent French style, warm climate Viognier which managed to keep enough acidity to remain fresh and tangy. Next up was the Arbousier Rouge 2004, a 4 euro wine, which tasted like a 4 Euro wine. It was vegetal, tannic and very dry and had no refinement whatsoever. We then moved onto the multi-award winning, 7,70 Vignes Royales 2000, an earthy, stoney wine lacking any real fruit development, made by Carbonic Maceration – I think that I would have preferred it if it had traditional vinification, greater fruit expression – it was however very typical of a style of wines made on the Schiste terroir. Finally we moved onto the Chateau des Albie'res Cuvee George Darde' which was a very well made wine indeed, the fruit was clearly top class, and the blend, and aging fabulous – but again as happens so often with coops in the Northern region of the appelation, the extensive use of Carbonic maceration just took the edge off the wine for me, when I compare the wines to those of smaller producers – it's the style rather than the quality of wine that I prefer. It also has to be said that we didn't have time to try every single one of the wines available - the range is vast for one operation and there may have been a hidden gem in there that we missed. Give them a go, particularly if you are a fan of the more widely available Caves de Roquebrun wines which are produced in a similar fashion, from similar Terroir.