Wine tasting in the South of France - Saint Chinian

So one of the main differences between everywhere else I have tasted wine in the world, and the Domaines and Caves in France is the size! A lot of the places we visited were very small, and would only open up for business when we arrived. Some weren't even open on a weekend, which seemed a bit of a missed opportunity to me. Also because they don't charge you to try, you do feel compelled to buy. Fortunately they were so nice it was no hardship buying them.

We went to Chateau Bousquette, just down the road from Berlou still in the Saint Chinian AOC. This was a family run business who have been organic since 1972. The lady who served us (who I think was also the owner) had excellent English, so it was really interesting to hear about how they made the wine and how the harvest was going. She also took us out back to look at their steel tanks. As ever we bought some wine - the rose and one of the reds were my favourites. 

http://theorganicwinecompany.com/history/

Then we went to another vineyard a 2 minute drive down the road, Domaine Jougla. Again the reds from this part of the region were very pleasant.

I love Syrah, and it is used a lot down here - either by itself or in a blend, often with Mourverde and Grenache or Carignan. 

Again a lovely little tasting room with one of the owners taking us through the wines. An English lady happened to be there tasting with her Scandinavian sister in law. She'd recently moved to the area so we had a good chat about the wine and what she thought of the area.

Unsurprisingly we purchased some more wine! My brother said it had been around 10 years since he had tried wines in the area at vineyards, and he felt that the wines had really come on in that time, and were much better than he remembered. 

http://www.domainedesjougla.com/