Outsiders make global inroads from France's unsung wine region

(GMANetwork) - Winemakers from Britain, Australia, the United States and even elsewhere in France are raising the profile of France's largest but most unsung wine region, Languedoc-Roussillon.

In southwest France bordering Spain and the Mediterranean, Languedoc used to be a byword for mass quantities of mediocre wine sold through local cooperatives or to wine industry merchants for blending with wines elsewhere.

But the poor cousin to France's Bordeaux and Burgundy wine regions is undergoing a transformation that has been attracting budding winemakers from around the world to a region that produces more than 180 million bottles of AOC wine a year.

Outsiders is a small group of winemakers in the region who hail from as far away as New Zealand and as close to home as Bordeaux. They provide a snapshot of the savvy new breed of Languedoc vignerons flouting the hidebound official rules governing French wine-making and applying scientific New World techniques to capture a bigger slice of the global market.

"I started the Outsiders group in June 2010 because I had met a number of people who were making interesting wines in Languedoc," said Louise Hurren, the founder and wine marketing executive. "I realised that what they all had in common was that they had come from outside the region."