It is the nation's largest wine-producing region with 300,000 hectares of vineyards extending along the Mediterranean coastline from the French-Spanish border to Provence.

Up to the early 1800s, it was renowned for high-quality wine but the emphasis switched to quantity over quality in the 20th century to the extent that in both world wars its vines provided the daily vin ordinaire wine rations given to French soldiers.

The 2000s have brought major regeneration in the region, evidenced in large measure by Jean-Claude Mas's Domaines Paul Mas producing 22 million bottles a year and selling 90 per cent of it in Australia and 64 other countries around the world.

Those who still disparage Languedoc-Roussillon and Jean-Claude Mas last month were dealt a heavy rebuke when America's prestigious Wine Enthusiast magazine selected the Mas operation as its 2020 European winery of the year. Jean-Claude's remarkable international success has flowed from imaginative promotion and marketing. With its swaggering, beret-wearing frog on the label, the Arrogant Frog brand has won a big following. The Croak Rotie and Ribet wines take a cheeky tilt at hidebound aspects of French wine.

From the fourth generation of a family that began winegrowing in 1892, Jean-Claude's youth was steeped in wine but his initial career path was to a business degree in France and an MBA in the UK. That was followed by a commercial attaché job in Miami and then a post with an oil company in France, which launched him heavily into motor sport competition. In 1992 he returned to his wine industry roots with jobs in Bordeaux and in 1996 to Languedoc as Domaines Virginie commercial director.

Then 2000 brought a critical turn: Jean-Claude, with no formal training as a winemaker but lots of "university of the cellar floor" know-how, inherited his father's 35-hectare vineyard and he established Domaines Paul Mas in honour of his dad. Initially the venture was based on bought-in Languedoc-Roussillon grapes processed in an old cellar in the southern French commune of Montagnac, which today is company headquarters.

The company now owns 15 vineyards totalling 800 hectares, most of which are chemical-free organically managed. It is the largest purchaser of grapes in Languedoc, with contracts extending over 1500 hectares of vines and 45 grape varieties.

UPMARKET RED BLEND

THIS upmarket Domaines Paul Mas Chateau des Crès Ricards Oenothera is a 14.5%-alcohol blend of 70% shiraz and 30% grenache and has deep purple hues and potpourri aromas. It shows spicy blackcurrant front-palate flavour, Maraschino cherry, bramble jelly, peppermint chocolate and cedary oak on the middle and a ferric tannin finish. PRICE: $30. DRINK WITH: veal saltimbocca. AGEING: six years.

RATING: 4.5 stars

FRUITY MAS VIOGNIER

WITH today's other wines, the Domaines Paul Mas 2019 Estate Pays d'Oc Viognier is available in Dan Murphy's and BWS bottle shops. It is straw in the glass and displays passionfruit scents and lychees front-palate flavour. The middle palate has apricot, spice, mixed peel and cashew oak and a finish of gunmetal acid. PRICE: $17. DRINK WITH: coriander and coconut crabcakes. AGEING: drink now.

RATING: 4 stars

CROAKING FROG FUN

IT CERTAINLY ain't Cte-Rtie from France's northern Rhone appellation, but this Arrogant Frog 2019 Croak Rotie Shiraz is a fun quaffer. With 13.5% alcohol, bright crimson hues and gamey scents, it has juicy blackberry front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows glacé cherry, briar, licorice and coconutty oak and the finish minty tannins. PRICE: $12. DRINK WITH: pizza. AGEING: two years.

RATING: 4 stars

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