Minervois La Livinière - Vineyards of Occitanie

Wine Region : Languedoc.
AOP / AOC: Minervois La Livinière (known as Cru La Livinière).
Winemaking: Red wine.

Main grape varieties: Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Lledonner pelut.
Accessory grape varieties: Carignan, Cinsault, Piquepoul noir, Rivairenc, Terret noir.

PDO " Minervois La Liviniere »Is presented as the 1^er Languedoc vintage. The appellation occupies a territorial strip backing onto the Montagne Noire. It has only six neighboring villages La Liviniere whose name itself, derived from medieval Occitan viniera, already described a land of vines. This region of Small Causse is sculpted with reliefs where the vineyards rub shoulders with a flora of pines, garrigue, junipers and oaks. To these are added hundred-year-old olive trees, well adapted to climatic hazards. The vines exposed on the south and south-east slopes benefit from a microclimate where summer heat and drought are compensated by the nocturnal coolness descended from the causses. The elevations ranging from one hundred to four hundred meters help maintain average temperatures slightly lower than those of the plains of theAOP Minervois. In this area of low rainfall, the clay-limestone and stony soils nuanced by layers of sandstone and shale generate low natural yields. In Minervois La Liviniere, encépagement is exclusively reserved for the production of red wines. Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah are in the majority and can find association with Carignan in the first place but also Cinsault or Piquepoul noir. Harvested at good maturity, they give shape to complex and warm wines whose balance is established by a minimum aging period of fifteen months.