Prieuré Saint-Jean de Bébian Côteaux du Languedoc Rouge 2019

Bébian is an extraordinary place, a one-time priory with beautiful buildings and a vineyard planted on stony soils.

Though winemaking has gone on at the site of the estate since antiquity it was when the property was in the hands of Alain Roux in the 1970s that it really hit its straps.

Alain carried out a ‘root and branch’ overhaul of the estate with the aim of focusing on making high-quality wines. He planted all 13 of the permitted Châteauneuf varieties, taking cuttings from some of the finest estates there and from other great estates of the south.

He sold the property to two Parisian journalists in 1994 and they revamped the place, and made better wines than ever, before handing on the reins to new owners in 2008. Today the winemaker is an Australian, Karen Turner, who worked at Brown Brothers and Hugel previously, and who makes the wine here while running her own domaine close by.

What makes Bébian so special is that the vineyard is planted with Rhône varieties and, above all, the soil, which is poor and stony. Though situated in the Languedoc, just outside the town of Pezenas, the soils of this domaine are almost identical to those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, even down to the pudding stones on its land that are so typical of the famous Rhône region.

They make a Châteauneuf-like white and a cinsault based rosé but it is the red for which the estate is famous. It is destined for long keeping. The fruit once picked is allowed to macerate for a long time. The grenache element is kept in tank and sees no wood ageing, as the Bébian team feel the grape loses its shape when in contact with oak and tends to oxidise more quickly. Syrah and mourvèdre on the other hand are raised in oak for between 12 and 18 months. The result is a wine of power and elegance and Bébian is unquestionably one of the great wines of the Languedoc.