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Les Jamelles pushes heritage of Languedoc with Rare & Antique range

Published:  28 June, 2011


Les Jamelles Rare & Antique continues to introduce wines committed to help promote and maintain indigenous grape varieties from the Languedoc-Roussillon.

Les Jamelles Rare & Antique continues to introduce wines committed to help promote and maintain indigenous grape varieties from the Languedoc-Roussillon.

French producer, Badet Clement & Co, has already established a strong presence for the Les Jamelles name in the UK and across 45 international wine markets, but wants to now use the strong brand name to introduce new traditional varietals to its customers from the region.


Laurent Delaunay, founder and chief winemaker at Badet Clement, said the new wines would not only help give Les Jamelles a point of difference in the crowded Languedoc-Roussillon branded wine market, but help support local growers and try and keep these indigenous varieties alive.

"Competition is so strong in the branded sector that it is hard to be different if you have the same varieties. But here in the Languedoc-Roussillon area we have so many of our own varieties that it makes sense to want to try and save them and use them to express our heritage."

He said the Rare & Antique project had taken four years of preparation and planning to get to the stage. "We wanted to go back and look specifically at old, traditional varieties and then work with growers to help develop them. We spent two years analysing the vineyards to see which ones could produce the right variety. It has been a long process because we have to learn new skills, to understand the terroir differently. We do not know how to make these wines, so it has been a learning process," explained Delaunay.

The range now includes indigenous red varieties Côt, Alicante, Carignan and whites Macabeu, Bourboulenc and Rolle. The challenge now, he said, was to widen the interest in the wines from the independent and sommelier sectors and to be able to explain the wines and the varieties in more detail.

They are available in the UK, mainly for the independent sector, at £8.99.

It is also introducing Les Jamelles Naturel, a three-strong organic range and is pushing its restaurant wine range, Abbotts & Delaunay, which promises the best quality wines from across the Languedoc.

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