Look beyond 'Limoux' on the label to find excellent chardonnay

The summer heat in Languedoc is all pervasive. Even the geckos can barely lift their heads off the rocks. It's why the wines from this part of France tend to be so muscular, powerful and richly-fruited - the grapes can drink in as much sunshine as they need and winemakers struggle with low acidity rather than alcohol.

But head along the Aude river, due south from the fortified walls of Carcassonne, and you'll escape from its worst excesses. Here in Limoux, where timber-framed houses straddle the banks of the river, you are in the foothills of the eastern Pyrenees, more likely to bump into walkers than wine lovers.

If you're out at night, even in mid-summer, you'll want to wrap up as temperatures drop fairly quickly. It's why this part of the Languedoc is known, unusually, for its white wines, and specifically its sparkling Blanquette de Limoux - said to be the first sparkling wines in the world that date back to 16th century monks at the nearby Abbaye de Saint-Hilaire.

It is, frankly, a bizarre location for an investment from Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, owner of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux. Until 2003, there wasn't even an appellation controlée here (AOC; the accepted sign of quality wine in France), and all wine was bottled as Vin de Pays. Today, the biggest producer is still the local co-operative cellars, Sieur d'Arques, making 60 per cent of the production of both AOC Limoux and Blanquette de Limoux. But even first growths can't resist the allure of undervalued terroir.

Certainly, as you drive away from the pretty but fairly unremarkable town of Limoux, up endless winding roads to the tiny village of Saint-Polycarpe, the scenery is hard to resist: all towering escarpments, oak forests and circling birds of prey.

Domaine de Baron'arques sits on one of the highest points of the appellation, with its 43 hectares of vineyards ranging between 250 metres and 350 metres above sea level, and the Pyrenees mountains behind heading up to 3,000 metres at their highest point.

The 17th-century estate used to be called Domaine de Lambert, and belonged to another local religious order that just might have made early sparkling wines; the Abbey of Saint-Polycarpe, until it was broken up after the French Revolution.