Producteurs Plaimont are a co-operative wine producing organisation based in south western France. They produce AOC wines from Madiran, Pacherenc and Saint-Mont plus IGP Côtes de Gascogne. I won’t go into lots of detail on them here as they will feature in a future article in my series on Co-operatives.
Saint-Mont is a small commune of around 300 people in the Gers department, located in the new Occitanie region of south-west France. Côtes de Saint-Mont was created as a VDQS in 1981, lost the “Côtes de” in 2007 and was then promoted to AOC in 2011 when the VDQS level was eliminated. The permitted zone of production is around 1,200 hectares reaching across 46 communes.
- Red wines: Tannat (minimum 60%), Fer Servadou (minimum 20%), Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
- White wines: Arrufiac, Petit Courbu, Petit Manseng and Gros Manseng
Plaimont Saint Mont “En La Tradition” Blanc 2016 (13.0%, RRP €15.95 – €16.95 at Baggot Street Wines, D4; Honest 2 Goodness, Glasnevin; Ardkeen Stores, Waterford; Daly’s Drinks, Boyle, Co. Roscommon)
Either consciously or subconsciously, many wine enthusiasts think of an inverse correlation between quantity and quality, i.e. if there’s a lot of it, it’s not going to be that good. This wine smashes that theory as it is anything but small production, yet tastes absolutely delicious! It’s very aromatic on the nose, with fleshy peach, apricot, mandarin and grapefruit on the palate. Generous fruit sweetness on the mid-palate gives way to mineral notes and a long, fresh finish. With fruit, texture and acidity this would be a very flexible wine for food matching.
I went to a tasting, I think last year, of Plaimont wines (which also included a fun blending session). I was surprised how good these wines are, having mostly remembered their cheaper offerings many many years ago. And also the work they are doing with rare and lost varieties is wonderful. If they head to Ireland, then go. I even got a free beret!