page_title: Maury AOC
section_title: Winemaking
hierarchical_section_title: Maury AOC / Winemaking
caption_attribution_description: English: Tautavel (Perpignan-region), France: view from Vingrau to Tautavel Français&#160;: Tautavel, département Pyrénées-Orientales: vue de Vingrau à Tautavel Deutsch: Tautavel (Nähe Perpignan), Frankreich: Blick zum Ort aus Richtung Vingrau
context_page_description: Maury is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée for fortified vin doux naturel wines made in the Roussillon wine region of France. Almost all wines are red, made from at least 75% Grenache noir. Other permitted grapes are Grenache blanc, Grenache gris, Macabeu, Malvoisie du Roussillon, Syrah, Muscat and other local varieties. Although the grapes are different, they are used and marketed very much like port. It is made in the communes of Maury, Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet, Lesquerde, Tautavel and Rasiguères. The AOC was granted in 1936.
  Maury is a "vin doux naturel" style created by adding fortifying spirits, such as brandy, to the wine in mid-fermentation. This halts the activities of the wine yeast leaving the wine with "natural" residual sugars. Maury is vinified in a manner similar to port, but initial aging is often conducted in large 25 liter glass jugs known as bonbonnes, les dames jeannes or demi-johns. The wines may also be aged in wood for up to 15 years. The resulting wines vary in depth and concentration.
  In food and wine pairings, Maury is often served as an apéritif or as an accompaniment to foie gras, duck and strong blue cheeses.
context_section_description: As a vin doux naturel (or VdN) Maury wines undergo a unique form of winemaking that shares elements with other notable fortified wines like Port, Sherry, Madeira and vin de liqueur. An English translation of the name would be "wines naturally sweet" and refers to the natural residual sugars of the grapes that are left unfermented in the wine. However these sugars are left because of the outside addition of grape spirits (or brandy) added early in the fermentation period that kills the yeast and halts the fermentation process. This process, called mutage leaves a partially fermented must (called the vin muté) with 6 to 12% alcohol from the fermentation and 5-10% alcohol by volume from the brandy. The amount of residual sugar left in the wine will vary from 50 to 125 g/l (5 to 12.5% RS).
  Prior to fermentation, the grapes destined for Maury production (predominantly Grenache) are harvested very ripe usually with a potential alcohol level (based on the amount of grape sugar alone) at 14.5% (around 25 to 27°Bx or 13.8 to 15 Baumé). After crushing, the must usually undergoes a period of extended maceration that can last up to 30 days. During this time the cap of grapes skins is frequently punched down (pigeage) or the juice pulled out from under the tank and pumped over the cap to allow for a more thorough extraction of phenolics that influence tannin, colour and aroma.
  Usually during this maceration, the fermentation process starts with ambient yeasts in the cellar. Often the wine will have fermented to the point where the grape spirits are added before maceration has ended and the wine is pressed off the skins, a process known as mutage sur grains. The added alcohol during maceration allows for more ethanol-soluble phenolics and flavor compounds to be extracted. After pressing, the wine is left to settle in concrete vats over the winter before it is racked into barrels or other containers.
  Since the fermentation process is halted rather quickly, the flavors of Maury do retain some of the natural primary grape aromas of Grenache along with some of the early fermentation esters that develop. But most of the distinctive character of Maury come from the aging process that can take place in a wide range of containers (from concrete and oak barrels to glass bonbonnes) kept in a variety of conditions (including out in the sun for deliberate oxidation) for a number of years depending the particular house style of the winemaker.
caption: A vineyard in the commune of Tautavel that can provide grapes for Maury wine.
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