Wednesday Wines – Episode 221 – This Year’s Essential Summer White
2023 Domaine Begude, Terroir 11300 Chardonnay, Haute Vallée de l’Aude, France (£12.95, Goedhuis Waddesdon (t) 020 7793 7900 (e) wine@goedhuiswaddesdon.com (w) www.goedhuiswaddesdon.com).
Please excuse the lazy intro to this tasting note. I published a piece four years ago on the 2019 vintage of this wine, and I can’t improve the backstory, so here it is!
James and Catherine Kinglake bought Domaine Begude, an idyllic vineyard and winery, back in 2003. 11300 is the postcode for the little village of Cépie, in the Limoux sub-region of the Languedoc, 15 miles southwest of Carcassonne. High on the hillside above Cépie is where James and Catherine organically tend their vines, making delicious and amazingly well-priced wines.
I met this delightful couple in 1999 while touring with my first wine book. It was at Waterstones in Clapham where we caught up, and while I signed a book for them, they told me that they were thinking of giving up City life and going to make wine in France. Of course, I told them they were fools. We kept in touch, and when James and I met a few months later, he showed me a few prospectuses of wineries for sale. One particular property caught my eye. I looked at a vineyard map and given that Chardonnay was planted, and the contour lines suggested some altitude (330m+), I asked James if this was Begude. The name of the property was confidential and not noted on the documents but judging by my experience of tasting Begude wines in the UK, I believed there was a good chance that this was the same property! Fine Chardonnays, from cool-climate regions in the South of France, were very thin on the ground twenty years ago, and this was already a favourite property of mine and one I had mentioned in my column in the Daily Mail a few times, so I was fascinated to hear that it was, indeed, Begude. Without hesitation, I said they should seriously consider this estate. It was on the top of James’s hitlist, too, and not long after this, they bought the land and fully renovated the house and the winery. I soon visited them and experienced why this is such a special place.
It is no surprise that this ‘postcode’ wine so accurately reflects its origins. I will never forget standing on their lawn, with an uninterrupted view of the Pyrenees some 80 miles away and breathing in the cool, breezy air. A faint saline tang manages to make its way up from the Med and added to a hint of lemony pine resin from the tall trees, shading the property, and the perfume was invigorating and mouth-watering. These dynamic tasting notes are found in every wine made under this label, giving them uniqueness and authenticity, which oceans of other wines lack.
2023 Domaine Begude, Terroir 11300 Chardonnay – Swinging in at a sprightly 13% alcohol, this glorious southern French Chardy is smooth, citrus-imbued and dynamic with green apple skin freshness that teases the palate and keeps everything lined up shipshape. Deeply gluggable, this wine is likely to move fast in the glass, leaving an aura of confidence and calm in its wake. While the diminutive price tag might lead you to believe that some degree of compromise is involved when you unscrew the cap, I can assure you that every element of pristine, naked, mineral-soaked Chardonnay is present and correct in Terroir 11300. 17.5/20