Domaine La Grange english

Gold for Icône 2019 and Édition 2019

The judges of the Concours des Grands Vins de France in Mâcon were very enthusiastic about our two Castalides wines Icône and Édition. They awarded both of them a gold medal. The Concours des Grands Vins de France in Mâcon is one of the oldest and most recognised wine competitions in France.

The Castalides wines

The Castalides are the mythical water nymphs who guard our 5 wells at La Grange. This abundance of water is an immeasurable treasure, especially in times of climate change, and must of course be guarded. Our vines benefit from it: with their long roots they reach these springs and are thus always sufficiently supplied.

The wines of the Castalides line are our top products.

The grapes come from the oldest vineyards and the vines have very little yield. Our cellar master Eric Thomas pays special attention to these wines and uses all his skills to produce truly top quality products.

Eric Thomas

The gold medals are another proof of his skills! Chapeau Eric!

Great Parker ratings!

Our prestigious wines from the great region Pézenas have been very well rated by Parker.

Castalides Icône and Castalides Édition triumphantly continue what they started the year before.

For the first time Castalides Réserve has received a rating above 90 points.

This is how Jeb Dunnuck, one of Parker’s staff members and specialized on wines from southern France, rated our Castalide wines:

Castalides Réserve     AOP Languedoc Pezenas    2014    90 - 92 points    

CastalidesEdition       AOP Languedoc Pezenas     2014    92 points

                                                                         2015    90 - 92 points 

Icône                         AOP Languedoc Pezenas    2014    93 points

                                                                         2015    91 - 93 points 

(‘from – to’ means different barrels were sampled)

More than 90 Parker points means the wines are ‘outstanding’!

The Castalides wines are outstanding!

This is a huge success for us and shows us that we are on the right track: we will bring the La Grange wines right to the top of the wine league of southern France.

This is how Jeb Dunnuck describes our region and the location Pézenas especially:

‚The Languedoc is a diamond in the rough and continues to be an incredible source of high-quality wines …’

Pézenas: One of my favorite regions is the limestone, schist and volcanic soils located around the gorgeous village of Pézenas. This is a young AOC that wasn’t created until 2007. It's located to the west of Montpellier, south of the Terrasses du Larzac region, and the climate here is warmer and more Mediterranean in style, with hot days and moderate/warm nights. They only produce red wines and Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre are the key grape varieties. I always find a spiciness in these wines, as well as beautiful voluptuousness and texture on the palate. …’

La Grange at Vinisud

This year you can find us once more at Vinisud at Montpellier.

 

 

 

 

You can look forward to:

 

Our Classique range – fruity and pleasing

 

 

Our Terroir range – The expression of prime location

 

 

Our Tradition range - Celebrating tradition

 

 

Our Castalides range – Grand wines from vineyards of excellence

Parker discovers Languedoc and La Grange - When dreams come true

Everybody has a dream. We always dreamed of producing top-quality wines at La Grange. And for two of our wines this dream became reality:

our top wine Icône 2013 has been awarded 94 to 96 Parker points and Édition 2011 received 94 Parker points!

Fantastic results considering the fact that only 5 wines from Languedoc received 95 points and only one received 95 - 98 points. …And in time we'll catch up to that one, too!

What's as grandiose as the rating itself is the enthusiastic commentary Jeb Dunnuck, Parker's master taster responsible for Languedoc region wrote about our Icône.

Jeb Dunuck: Icône 2013: A terrific barrel sample ….. this estate, under the leadership of Renate and Rolf
Freund, continues to knock it out of the park. I loved their 2011s last year, and these 2012 and 2013 are just as good.
Some examples of the commentary about Édition 2012 include: this estate warrants attention.'Edition has a rocking purity‘ und he thinks the wine is ‚sexy‘.
Isn't that a wonderful description?

He praises our region, which once again shows that we invested in the right winery:

Jeb Dunnuck titles his presentation of Languedoc wines: France´s Unknown Gems.

He wishes that readers may be inspired to taste the wines of the region. And his number one in the Pézenas region is La Grange.

Subsequently he said about Languedoc: This is a terrific region that´s producing distinctive, world class wines that merit your hard-earned money, limited space in the cellar, and a spot on the table.

This is the list of all of Parkers ratings of the La Grange wines:

Icône   2013        94-96 Points
Icône   2012             93 Points
Icône   2011             94 Points

Édition 2013        91-93 Points
Édition 2012             94 Points
Édition 2011             94 Points

A heartbeat for Icône

Our heart skipped a beat when we received a Guide Hachette 'Coup de Coeur' (french: a heartbeat) for our Icône 2012. Guide Hachette is the most important independent wine guide in France.

And who receives this 'Coup de Coeur' award (the symbol is a red heart)? Well, the 'Coup de Coeur' is a wine that delights the jury because it's a pure pleasure to drink it. The tasting teams of Guide Hachette suggest wines for the 'Coup de Coeur'. These wines are then tasted by a super jury that decides which wine makes their heart beat fastest (and will therefore receive the coveted award).

And this is how our Icône 2012 is described in the ornate french Guide Hachette style:

The assemblage of Syrah and Mourvèdre presents itself in a robe of deeply red and violet young reflections. It has a markedly delicious and ripe bouquet. This bouquet of ripe, dark fruit is wed harmoniously to the flavours of mocha and herbs. In the mouth Icône is of great creamy, silky abundance. It is complex and very aromatic. It's powerful structure is without severity and has an impressive length. It is already a great wine; it also has a great future ahead of it.

The Oscars of the wine world: a great honor for La Grange

A great honor for La Grange: we received 94 Parker points for our Castalides Icône and Édition and 89 Parker points for our Castalides Réserve.

Parker points are the oscars of the wine world! A winemaker can hardly ask for more. The only drop of bitterness: We only have very few bottles left.

And these are our winners:

Castalides Icône: The 2011 Languedoc Caslides Icône’s inky purple color is followed by fabulous aromas and flavors of creme de cassis, blackberry, melted licorice, toast and hints of chocolate. Made from 70% Syrah and 30% Mourvedre that spent 18 months in new French oak, it’s a full-bodied, layered and seamless effort that has no hard edges, but awesome purity and blockbuster length. Give it another year to integrate its oak, and plan on drinking bottles through 2021. Created in 2007 by Renate and Rolf Freund, Domaine La Grange is located to the west of Montpellier and covers roughly 30 hectares, with the wines made by oenologist Jean Natoli. My first opportunity to taste these wines, I was blown away by their two 2011s, and across the board, the wines showed thrilling richness and depth, yet were always balanced and seamless. The domaine does like to use a healthy dose of new oak, yet it was balanced nicely by ample fruit and was always well-integrated.

Castalides Édition: With more garrigue, underbrush and spice, as well as brilliant creme de cassis and assorted berry fruit, the 2011 Languedoc Caslides Édition (50% Grenache and 50% Syrah aged 12 months in 80% new oak) is full-bodied, seamless and layered on the palate, with a weightless, elegant profile. It is a rock star effort to drink over the coming 7-8 years.

Castalides Réserve: A blend of equal parts Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, the 2012 Languedoc Castalides Réserve gives up pretty red berry fruit, garrigue and underbrush-like aromas and flavors in an elegant, classy and balanced package. Showing the elegance of the estate, it’s up-front and ready to go, yet should also evolve gracefully for 4-5 years.

A spring surprise: four medals for La Grange

It's no secret to the wine world anymore that women have a more highly developed sense of taste than men.

The professionals of this field - the winemakers, oenologists, sommelières and merchants - come together once a year for the wine contest 'Féminalise' and taste more than 4000 wines from all over the world. The ladies were so pleased with our La Grange wines that they awarded us with four medals:

Icône 2012, from our top line Castalides was awarded a gold medal.

Castalides Édition 2012 and Terroir Syrah 2012 were awarded a silver medal each.

Castalides Réserve 2012 was awarded the bronze medal.

We think these women have excellent taste!

Old vines

Look at these disheveled, gnarly old guys! These are 60 year old Carignan Vines in our Combelles Vineyard. At the moment they are waiting for their new spring 'haircut'. Our oldest vines grow in Combelles.

They are more than 60 years old. And as it goes with the elderly, they are stubborn and have a distinct character. That's why our premium Castalides wines are made from these vines. The grapes have to be hand-picked and the old vines yield very little, but it's definitely worth the effort!

La Grange and the Castalides

La Grange has been blessed with an abundance of water, rather uncommon in the hot Languedoc region. A subterranean water reservoir provides water for our vineyards all year round so that our grapes never suffer any stress or shortage.

Julius Caesar even built aqueducts so he could use the water from our region to provide water to his military camps near Béziers. All in all we have five wells on the gounds of La Grange and in every single one of them lives at least one water nymph, also called Castalides.

These are the mythical creatures our wines are named for. The Castalides are very shy. But on mild summer nights, on full moon, you can see them dance through the pine grove.

Manual harvest at La Grange

Here at La Grange we have vineyards that are more than 50 years old. These vineyards have to be harvested by hand and are usually the last ones to ripen.

But they don't say 'best things last' for no reason. In these vineyards we never use big machinery. Instead, the grapes are cut by hand and are carefully placed into boxes.

These are the grapes we use to make our Castalides wines. The very best you can get from La Grange. Our manual harvest yields grapes of the highest quality and thus, wines of the highest quality.

This year's grapes are very small but very aromatic. Exactly what is required if you want to make great wines. Of course, we also never say no to a good cup of coffee at the end of a harvesting day.