La Mejanelle is a 'terroir' of the Languedoc appellation in southern France. It is one of several such terroirs within the larger Gres de Montpellier sub-region, which flanks Montpellier town to the north-east and south-west.
Although the La Mejanelle title was originally applied to both red and white wines, it is now reserved exclusively for reds. All modern Languedoc La Mejanelle wines are reds made predominantly from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre grapes. Both Carignan and Cinsaut were once common in the vineyards here, but have fallen from favor and are now relegated to a minor role in the local wines.
The La Mejanelle title covers an area to the east of the city of Montpellier – namely the communes of Castelnau-le-Lez, Mauguio and Saint-Aunes. It also covers Montpellier itself, although almost all land here is dominated by housing and commercial developments. This creates a roughly square area marked by Montpellier to the west, the Etang de L'Or lagoon to the south and the Montpellier-Nimes railway to the north.
The climate is definitively Mediterranean, with a slight marine influence as a result of the area's proximity (5 miles/8km) to the southern French coast. This coastal area around Montpellier is famous not just for its wines, but also for its pink flamingos. It is one of the birds' northernmost natural habitats, although they are also found in the lagoons of Venice in Italy (which lie very slightly further north). While many of the birds migrate south for winter, some remain here all year round, demonstrating quite how mild the winters are. In honor of this, several local producers feature flamingos on their labels or even in wine names.
The soils here are dominated by alluvial terraces of large, round pebbles, deposited by glacial and fluvial activity over the millennia. Sandstone is also a key feature in the local soils, as it is throughout the Gres de Montpellier zone; grès is the French word for 'sandstone'.
The railway, which marks the northern edge of the La Mejanelle area, holds a particular significance in local wine history. The arrival of railways in southern France (in the 19th Century) had a significant impact on the wine industry at a national level. Historically, the transportation of wine had been limited almost entirely to water-borne means, giving areas such as Bordeaux and the Loire Valley a significant advantage over the southern regions, which lacked an efficient connection with key markets in northern France, Britain, The Netherlands and Germany. Even with the Canal du Midi connecting Montpellier to Toulouse (and ultimately to Bordeaux via the Canal de Garonne), shipping wine northwards was a slow and impractical process. As soon as the vineyards of Languedoc and Roussillon were connected by rail, the demand for their affordable, large-volume wines rose dramatically. It was this industrial development that marked the beginning of the Languedoc's story as a successful wine region.
