A guide to the joyous and surprising wines of the Côtes de Thongue
Deep in the Languedoc in the south of France lies a small area producing fantastic wines. It’s called the Côtes de Thongue. Here, there are virtually no rules, so winemakers are free to grow the grapes they want and blend them the way they want. This website will guide you to the best wines and best domaines from there.
What’s special about the Côtes de Thongue?
France is the greatest wine producing country in the world, but the French do love their bureaucracy.
Every appellation in the mighty Appellation d’Origine Protegée system has rules about which grapes can be included in that area’s wines. In the Côtes de Thongue - pronounced ‘Cote de Tong’ - there are almost no rules, because they have chosen to avoid the AOP system and remain in IGP: Indication Géographique Protegée. IGP normally indicates a second division wine; in the case of the Côtes de Thongue, it indicates a small zone of land, which has chosen to keep this status in order to preserve its freedom to innovate.
When that’s put together with an intriguing terroir and a cluster of innovative winemakers, this region opens up the possibility of tastes that haven’t been discovered before.
This website offers you the chance to discover more about it: its wines and its winemakers.
