Len de l'El

Identity

Len de l'El nearly vanished from this encyclopedia because of an apostrophe.

The Gaillac cahier des charges lists the principal varieties of its white wines. On extraction, the list stopped dead at "- cépages principaux : l". The break fell exactly on the apostrophe in its name, and searching the document for "len de l'El" returned nothing. An early task concluded that no source named it and left it out of Gaillac's blend — a principal variety, missing from its own appellation, because a tool had snagged on a mark of punctuation.

Today it can be read. The list comes out whole: Len de l'El B, Mauzac B, Mauzac Rose Rs, Muscadelle B.

History and origin

A grape of the Gaillac district, where it has stayed. Its name comes from the Occitan lenh de l'uèlh, "far from the eye", and describes a habit of the plant: the first inflorescence sits high on the shoot, at the sixth node on average, and so far from the basal bud. It is a grower's name, saying what you see while pruning.

The form "Loin de l'Œil" is the second official name France retains for propagation material.

In the vineyard

It buds early, three days after Chasselas, and ripens in the second period, two and a half weeks after it. Pl@ntGrape calls it "quite vigorous and productive" — an explicit word for vigour, which is less common on these records than one might think, since productivity is often given on its own.

Its internodes are long, and the high first inflorescence that gives it its name has a practical consequence: short pruning would cut its crop away. It is susceptible to grey rot and to mites.

In the glass

Two descriptors here, and it is worth saying what they are worth. Pl@ntGrape gives none: it writes "dry wines, fine and fragrant but low in acidity". Pear and hawthorn are readings of that "fine and fragrant" joined to a low acidity, not quotations.

What the source does state is the fault: not much acid. That is the grape's structuring fact, and it explains everything about how it is used. When dry, it is blended with Mauzac, which supplies some — the two Gaillac whites complement each other exactly where each falls short.

And in over-ripeness, that fault stops being one. "Left to overripen, Len de l'El can give concentrated sweet wines." Sugar takes the place the acid does not hold.

Great terroirs

Gaillac, and next to nothing else. There it is a principal variety for still and sparkling whites.

But it is in late-harvest wines that the text gives it its true rank. For that mention the principal varieties are Len de l'El and Ondenc; Mauzac and Muscadelle drop to accessories. The hierarchy of the dry whites inverts: the grape blended to make up for its acidity becomes, the moment sugar is the goal, the one placed first.

What it gets confused with

Mauzac, its neighbour in the vineyard and in the bottle, with which it forms the classic pair of Gaillac whites. Mauzac gives apple and an acidity that falls away; Len de l'El gives finesse and a low acidity from the start. They do not resemble each other, they complete each other — and the appellation ranks them differently by style, which is the best proof that it tells them apart.

Chenin and Petit Manseng share with it the register of sweet wine made without noble rot. Petit Manseng keeps an extreme acidity beneath the sugar, and so does Chenin; Len de l'El does not. Its sweet wine is rounder, less taut, and is drunk sooner.