One of the best things for me when I get the monthly wine club specials from the Fine Wine Source is the education that I get from these wines.  In 1993 they opened up the doors in Livonia, Michigan and they are really the only wine store that I have been in that only sells wine, though it took me to be retired to discover the shop, because they are closed on Sundays and Mondays, which always coincided with the days that I had off in retailing. 

The origins of the Vignerons du Pays d’Enserune date back to the beginning of organized winegrowing with the construction of the first cooperative winery in France in the village of Maraussan in 1901. Les Vignobles Foncalieu is a union of cooperatives in the heart of Languedoc.  The regions encompass plenty of land and soils from the mountains to the ocean, with four-thousand hectares of vineyards and over 650 winegrowers.  In 2017, the trade periodical Drinks International listed Foncalieu to be included in their list of the fifty most well-known brands of wine in the world.  They have developed twelve different collections to take advantage of the assorted terroirs of their association of growers.

At the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, the Oppidum Romain d’Enserune dominates the terroir of the Enserune wines.  It is the warmest and driest climate of France.  Created by teamwork of the varied growers is how they can create singular grape varietal wines as in the Les Vignobles Foncalieu Ensedune Petit Verdot Coteaux d’Enserune 2017 of the Languedoc.  The Coteaux d’Enserune IGP was originally called Vin de Pays des Coteaux d’Enserune, but in 2009 the term Vin de Pays was phased out for the IGP designation to make the wine regions of France coincide more with the Common Market, and to eliminate the poor image that was associated with Vin de Pays.  Petit Verdot is one of the grapes found in the “Bordeaux Blend” and is a thick skin grape with small berries that produces an inky dark juice high in tannins.  The wine promises to have a nose of red fruits and floral spices, with a taste evoking peppers and spices.  It might be my first encounter with a wine that is strictly Petit Verdot.