2024 marks the twelfth edition of the Top 100 competition, which was set up to discover, select and promote the best wines from the Languedoc, Roussillon, and South-West of France, extending to the Rhône Valley.
Featuring an interesting and diverse collection of high-quality wines, to be retailed at price points ranging right across the market – from the ‘everyday’ to the ‘special occasion’.
So many bottles to try and sample!
Lots of the bottles on offer caught our eye, though even with two of us we could only sample a small selection.
The red wines traditionally associated with these regions still predominated; L’Estebal’s Le grand Pan AOP Languedoc Cabrières 2022 (catalogue no. 49) and Domaine Bassac’s Le Manpôt Rouge IGP Côtes de Thongue 2021 (41, with an amusing moustached label) were two fine gutsy specimens.
Arnaud de Villeneuve Tradition’s AOP Muscat de Rivesaltes 2022 (99) was a truly lovely example of another very traditional regional wine style, served locally at aperitif as well as dessert time.
Two less familiar types that we enjoyed very much were a very classy pink AOP Crémant de Limoux NV, Sieur d’Arques Grande Cuvée Rosé 1531 (31) and Joseph Castan’s Crocodile Dandy Blanc IGP Côtes de Gascogne 2023 (89), a glamorous sparkling Sauvignon Blanc complete with – yes – a crocodile-skin-textured bottle!
This is very much a working occasion, a tasting designed predominantly for the wine trade.
The attraction for its buyers is that here, in one place, they may hope to fill that elusive gap in their lists, or just find something new, from an assemblage of wines already blind-tasted and selected for quality within a well-established award scheme, whose professional judging panel was this year chaired by MWs Susie Barrie and Peter Richards.
Which wines will make it to the UK market?
Made from 32 different grape varieties, and representing 40 different AOPs and IGPs, these 100 wines offered a wide variety of styles – and 50% of them were still seeking a first UK distributor.
A trend towards higher-quality wines was evident with the RRP for 49% of the winners priced at £20 and above, compared to 37% in 2023.
Judges this year had also acknowledged the high overall quality of the entries, underscoring the region’s growing reputation and the expertise of its producers.
More information
Sud de France Top 100: suddefrancetop100.co.uk/en