Grape Variety: Petit Manseng

Colour: White

Manseng (or Manseng Noir) is a wine grape variety of Basque origins that is grown primarily in South West France. Like Pinot noir and Muscat, the grape mutates easily and has spawn several addition grape varieties that are still being used in wine production, most notably Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng. The white wine varieties of Manseng were a favorite of the French poet Colette who called the wine séduction du vert galant and wrote: “I was a girl when I met this prince; aroused, imperious, treacherous, as all great seducers are.”

Petit Manseng is a white grape variation of Manseng and produces the highest quality wine of any grape in the Manseng family. The name is derived from its small, thick skinned berries. Coupled with the small yields of the grapevine, most Petit Manseng farmers produce around 15 hl of wine per hectare. The grape is often left on the vine till December to produce a late harvest dessert wine. The grape is grown primarily in the Languedoc, Jurançon and Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh.

Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh “Brumaire” is a November harvest dulcet-toned wine made from Petit Manseng with a nose of almond pastry, pain grillé, cinnamon and caramelised pears. Brumaire means misty by the way and is also the name of the month on the old calendar. The Frimaire, from raisined grapes left on the vine until December, goes one step beyond. Fermented and aged in new oak barrels for one year this is liquid pain perdu for millionaires with the most beautiful nose of sweet white truffle.

Jean-Bernard Larrieu makes dry wines from Gros Manseng but it is his super sweet wines (100% Petit Manseng in new oak), harvested as late as December in some years, which consistently offer the greatest pleasure, exhibiting a sublime expression of sweet fruit: mangoes, coconut, grapefruit and banana bound by crystal-pure acidity. Magical as an aperitif, perfect with foie gras or anything rich, classic with Roquefort, and simply delicious with white peaches. La Magendia is an Occitan expression meaning the best. The basic Moelleux, known simply as Jurançon, is immensely enjoyable as a pre-prandial quaff. It is called, I believe, a four o’clock wine, so if you’re about to watch Countdown, this is ideal. And is also what Jurançon used to taste like, before sec became sexy. Made from 80% Gros Manseng and 20% Petit Manseng with the latter picked in three successive tries. Finally, a rare liquoreux, Vent Balaguer, of great sweetness and delightful acidity, which we will be drinking with friends and family. Pure Manseng, pure joy.

We also have fresh white Irouléguy from the heart of the Basque country for collectors of arcana. These wines, made from Gros and Petit Manseng and Courbu, are electrifying, tense with acidity, displaying a fine citrus character, with wild flowers, gunflint and crystallised lemons, the taste equivalent of letting your tongue roller-skate down a glacier. Both whites see some new oak, but you would never know – although the Xuri has a balsamic edge. In most vintages the ripeness of the Petit Manseng confers some mandarin and even mango flavours and a surprising belt of alcohol.