Le Tasting Room

Camplong is a tiny village in the heart of the Corbières appellation in the Languedoc region of France.  It has 270 inhabitants and is nestled at the foot of the Aleric mountain.  250 hectares of well exposed vines are planted on south-facing stony slopes overlooking the valley of Orbieu.

Les Vignerons de Camplong is a small cooperative that produces around 12,000hls of Corbières wine a year (red, white and rosé).  C de Camplong is the top cuvée that is made with assistance from Dominique Laurent and Michel Tardieu.

Grapes are sourced from the oldest parcels planted on south facing slopes.  They are manually harvested and then fermented according to grape variety.  The Carignan element  (26%) undergoes a carbonic maceration, the Mourvèdre (8%) and Grenache (16%) is destemmed and then fermented over a period of 12 days and the Syrah (50%) undergoes a low temperature whole bunch maceration before being blended with the Carignan and Grenache.  The blended wine is then aged for 14 months in new Allier oak barrels before being bottled with fining or filtration.

We drank the 2000 vintage and it was a very delicious wine.  With amazing forest fruit and dried prune on the nose, a hint of violets and a savoury note - the new oak element has receded nicely although a hint of sweet vanilla is still present.  I have a weakness for old vine Carignan  (the vines are more than 50 years old) - it gives a blast of exotic aromatic earthy spices and that wonderful garriguey herbal element.  The tannins are strong but don't dominate and I think the wine will certainly last a good few years although it's  drinking beautifully now.

We paid 25 Euros for the bottle - expensive for a Corbières but a  really classy wine so no regrets.

http://www.camplong.com/default.asp