Wine and history: Pays Cathare

by Robin Garr | Dec. 13, 2024

Did you love your high-school history class? History and math rank low in popularity. But when you get interested in wine, history often tags along.

What do you think?

Do you enjoy learning the history, geography, stories, and lore behind what’s in your glass? Or would you rather just enjoy the wine?

I often make the point that wine holds a special place in our lives because it’s one of the few foods or beverages that we enjoy not only with our senses but with our minds.

“Become even halfway serious about wine,” I wrote in the Oct. 23, 2023 column Maps matter because place matters, “and you’ll soon be intrigued not only by its flavor but by the stories and the lore that surround it. Learn about wine, learn about geology, agriculture, botany, science, and, not least, the history and geography of the many places where grapes are grown and wine is made. It’s almost like getting an advanced degree in a glass, with no tuition and no final exam!”

The topic came to mind, as it often does, as I was tasting our featured wine, Commanderie des Hospitaliers Pays Cathare.

This exceptionally tasty red wine, a typical southern French red blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, bears a double dose of fascinating and relatively little-known European history right there on the label: “Pays Cathare,” and “Commanderie des Hospitaliers.”

If you’re not a history nerd – or perhaps a resident of the Occitanie Region that covers Languedoc and Toulouse in Southwestern France, those names may not mean much to you.

But if you had lived in Europe around the turn of the 13th century, those words would have caught your attention like “Gaza” or “Ukraine” does these days. Maybe even more so.

The Cathari were a Christian religious movement of the late 12th century that flowered in Occitanie. Rooted in the ancient Gnostics, the Cathari (also known as Cathars) preached a dualistic vision of the universe in which light and the spirit, fighting on the side of good, engage in a cosmic battle against the evil forces of matter and darkness. This theology led them to an ascetic way of life that they believed would foster the good.

The Albigensian massacre, illumination in the 14th century Chronicle of Saint-Denis. In the British Library, London.

This all sounds reasonable enough, but the established church, horrified by this departure from orthodoxy, declared the Cathari heretics and sought to wipe them out. Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in 1209. It was the only Crusade against a European community, and it was exceptionally brutal in its indiscriminate slaughter. Numbers are lost to time, but historians calculate that at least 200,000 and possibly 1 million Cathars were killed, many of them by being burned alive in mass pyres.

That’s enough to spoil the taste of wine, but one hopes that humankind has learned a thing or two since then. Or perhaps not.

The Hospitaliers, by the way, were an order of knights who set up and worked in hospitals to tend the wounded, a kinder and gentler crew, perhaps, than their Knights Templar brothers who led much of the fighting.

And how, you ask, does all this connect with our featured wine?

Simply enough: The Pays Cathare wine region, a relatively small appellation near the city of Narbonne in what is now Occitanie, was a center of Cathari activity and the site of much of the fighting. And the Commanderie des Hospitaliers was founded there in 1192. The Commanderie’s historic wine estate with its 25 acres of vineyards traces its heritage to those days.

Can you taste all that history in the wine? Not in any detectable way, of course. But I enjoy knowing stories like this, and they do enhance my enjoyment of the wine. But you don’t need to read history to enjoy this wine.

Today’s Tasting Report

Commanderie des Hospitaliers 2020 Pays Cathare ($18.99)

A classic Southern French red blend of 70% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 5% Mourvèdre, Commanderie des Hospitaliers Pays Cathare is a clear, dark reddish-purple color. Its Grenache dominance shows in juicy raspberry scents tempered by a whiff of freshly ground black pepper. Fruit flavors expand on the palate to raspberry, strawberry, plum, and appropriately sour cherry, with that peppery backdrop, fresh acidity, and soft tannins framing an appealing and food-friendly flavor. 14% alcohol is present but happily does not present as heat. U.S. importer: Aquitaine Wine USA, LLC, Berkeley, Calif.; A Jean-Christophe Calvet Selection. (Dec. 11, 2024)

FOOD MATCH: The winery’s back-label suggestions reflect this robust red wine’s affinity for red meat and bold flavors: steaks, pork loin, lamb chops, turkey, and cheese. Good plant-based options might include mushroom risotto, roasted eggplant, or grilled tempeh or seitan with rich browned onion or roasted mushroom-based sauces.

WHEN TO DRINK: This 2020 vintage seems to be near its peak and might not benefit much from further cellaring. I’d drink it over the next year or two.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com currently lists a $22 average U.S. retail price, but this appears to be a statistical glitch driven by a few high-priced merchants. It’s widely available in the upper teens and represents excellent value at that price.

WEB LINK:
Here’s a detailed fact sheet on Aquitaine Wine’s website. You’ll also find a ton of colorful winery photos on producer La Commanderie des Hospitaliers’ French-language Facebook page.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Commanderie des Hospitaliers Pays Cathare on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read about Languedoc’s Pays Cathare wine region and its history at this Wine-Searcher link, where you’ll also find links to many wines of the region and vendors.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read about the Grenache-Mourvèdre-Syrah blends that have spread from the Southern Rhône and Languedoc to wine regions around the world.

Find the wines you want

Explore Wine-Searcher

Wine-Searcher.com is the place to go online if you want to find where to buy a particular wine that interests you. What’s more, Wine-Searcher.com offers so much more. It’s well worth a visit just to discover its many features, including its popular list of the world’s Top 10 Best Value Wines.

Good wines we’ve tried under $10.99!

Want tips to still more good, inexpensive wines? Here are Wine-Searcher links to vendors and prices for a bunch more wines for $10.99 or less that I’ve told you about in recent years. In some cases, the prices may have risen over the $10.99 mark since I reviewed them, but they should still be excellent bargains. Please tell us about your favorites!

Sponsor the Wine Advisor.

Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor and help us pay the rent while reaching 25,000 dedicated readers with your sponsorship message in this space, at the top of this E-letter, and on our social media. If you’re an established business in wine, food, and similar ventures, there’s no better way to focus your message toward an audience that comes here for just those topics. See our Sponsorship Page, or email Robin Garr for more information.

Wine Forum and Social Media

You’re always welcome to drop by our WineLovers Discussion Group, the Internet’s first and most civil online community. Discussions are open for public viewing, but you must register to post. To request registration, please contact me at wine@wineloverspage.com, tell me your name, mention the Wine Advisor, and briefly say why you’d like to participate in the forum. Sorry about the minor red tape, but this is our simple, low-tech way to deter spammers and bots.

I’d also be delighted to have you visit and “like” our WineLovers Facebook Page.