{"id":3909,"date":"2020-11-03T10:30:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T09:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/closcenteilles.com\/?page_id=3909"},"modified":"2020-12-01T16:20:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T15:20:26","slug":"lerme-centeilles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/closcenteilles.com\/nos-vins\/lerme-centeilles\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"L’Erme Centeilles"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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L'Erme de Centeilles<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Why make a Grenache Gris?<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A beautiful old Grenache Gris vine with its twisted arms \u2026\u00a0 Curiously pruned with a technique that\u2019s halfway between the \u201cgobelet\u201d and the \u201cCordon de Royat\u201d, almost as if those who preceded us with this vine had hesitated for a long time about it \u2026<\/p>

We too hesitated: in 1990, the \u201dgris\u201d form of the Grenache had a really bad press.\u00a0 What wine were we going to make?\u00a0 And then, with this \u201cmongrel\u201d pruning, how many years would it take us to give the stocks a form that was more or less in proportion?<\/p>

Let\u2019s confess: we even thought about uprooting it. \u00a0But each vine has its guardian angel:\u00a0 finally we pardoned it, and we made a sweet wine from it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What sort of over-ripeness is needed for a Minervois sweet wine? <\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Too dry to enable noble rot to develop, the Mediterranean climate does not allow a botrytis rate above 20%. Our windy regions are, however, the ideal location for concentration by wilting:\u00a0 in the Pays d\u2019Oc, custom requires us to speak of desiccation or \u201cpasserillage\u201d (\u201cpasserilhar\u201d or \u201cpanserilhar\u201d in Occitan) and not, of course, of late harvesting. In short, between mid-November and mid-December, the sugar content reaches a potential 19 to 23\u00b0, as long as there isn\u2019t a mishap.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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An arduous recognition of its existence!<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Until 1985, the Decree governing the VDQS appellation in the Minervois authorised production of a sweet wine: the NOBLE MINERVOIS. Alas!\u00a0 At that date, when the Minervois was \u201cpromoted\u201d to the rank of AOC, there was nobody who claimed that production which, as a result, was excluded from the new Decree.<\/p>

And thus commenced the long night of the noble Minervois.\u00a0 The consequences of that downgrading are trivial:<\/p>

It is no longer a VDQS
It is not (yet?) an AOC
<\/span>It cannot be a simple Vin de Table (too high in alcohol potential), nor a Vin de Pays (other standards).<\/span><\/p>

At the end of the day, without appellation or denomination, our \u201cugly duckling\u201d would have certainly remained outside the law – and thus unmarketable –\u00a0 if an abstruse, but beneficial, European taxonomy had not providentially classified it in a category with the bucolic name \u201cPartially fermented must derived from dried grapes\u201d. This is therefore its administrative \u201cname\u201d.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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And the cuv\u00e9e\u2019s baptismal name?<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A name is always complicated.  An Erme, in Occitan, is an uncultivated place where vegetation grows of its own accord. <\/p>\n

The erme is also an uninhabited place, a wilderness, to which the hermits withdrew. Those who lived at Centeilles belonged to the Order of Saint Anthony: they were \u201cthaumaturges\u201c and cured a terrible disease (ergotism) through prayer and thanks to an unguent made from pork fat and wine, sanctified by contract with the relics of their patron saint.<\/p>\n

The last hermit has reposed at Notre Dame de Centeilles since 1630 and the hermitage, which he occupied in the wake of so many others, is buried under the brambles.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Gourmet matches<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A real \u201cMinervois candy\u201d, it will be perfect with pan-fried foie gras or a Tatin-style pear tart, or combined with anything containing almonds or coconut.\u00a0 To be drunk within 20 years at 12\u00b0.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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