Wine region: France, Pyrenees

When I was a young girl, I was introduced to a passionate Prince, domineering and two-timing like all the great seducers: Jurançon.

Colette

The history of Jurançon begins in effect with Henri IV, born in Pau when it was the capital of the Kingdom of Navarre. The story is that during his christening his lips were rubbed with Jurançon and cloves of garlic, the prelude to any great reign one would imagine. The area of Jurançon lies in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The town of Gan marks the eastern limit of the vineyards and La Chapelle-de-Rousse is the village name you will commonly see on growers’ bottles. The slopes here are very steep; the south-west facing vines require a long growing period. In a good vintage the results can be stunning. The wines range from a dry almondy style with aromas of fresh hay and lemon-zest through the mellow marzipan brioche flavours of moelleux, to the spectacular late-harvested nectars made from the Petit Manseng grape with their beautiful bouquet of honey and flowers and opulent flavours of guava, pineapple and nutmeg. To the west and, at a much lower altitude, lies the commune of Monein and therein some of the great white wine makers in southern France. Growers such as Charles Hours, Jean-Bernard Larrieu and Henri Ramonteu are thinkers and innovators engaged in continuous debate with fellow growers about the styles of the wines they are producing particularly with regard to the role of oak. If one had to distinguish between the wines of Chapelle-de-Rousse and Monein it would be that the former have higher acidity and are a touch more elegant whilst the latter are more vinous and richer.

Nomansland, the territory of the Basques, is in a region called Cornucopia, where the vines are tied up with sausages. And in those parts there was a mountain made entirely of grated parmesan cheese on whose slopes there were people who spent their whole time making macaroni and ravioli, which they cooked in chicken broth and then cast it to the four winds, and the faster you could pick it up, the more you got of it.

- Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron
(quoted in Mark Kurlansky’s The Basque History of the World)

Irouléguy, an appellation consisting of nine communes, is situated in the French Basque country high up in the Pyrenees on the border with Spain. These wines are grown on the last remnants of a big Basque vineyard founded in the 11th century by the monks of Ronçevaux Abbey. Much of the vineyard work is artisanal; the vines are grown on steep terraces and have to be harvested by hand. Virtually all production is red or rose with Tannat and the two Cabernets being blended according to the taste of the grower. A minuscule amount of white is made at the co-operative from the two Mansengs and Domaine Brana, for example, produces a wine from 70% Petit Courbu. There are only about half a dozen wine makers as well as the co-op, but the overall standard is very high with Domaine Arretxea (see below) being the reference in the region.