Not just another rustic red

I’d been told I should try a red wine with the simple, unpretentious name of Domaine Marie, from the area of Faugeres in the Languedoc, available from Waitrose, my favourite supermarket (and Which? Magazine’s also I note with interest). It was good advice. Though there’s no shortage of southern French Languedoc wines on British shelves these days, here was one which, through the modesty of its label, could be in danger of being overlooked.

From a small estate run by Marie and her husband in the Cevennes, where Stevenson travelled with his donkey, it’s not just another rustic red. Indeed I’d be happy to find it on a restaurant wine list at a price in keeping with  - i.e. not more than twice as much as - the £8.49 Waitrose is asking for the 2011 vintage.  Such a shop price is a bargain for something as silky as this, dark enough to look like one of the black red wines of Cahors, big enough in flavour to confirm its 14 per cent alcohol level, yet not at all overbearing or excessively fruitified, based on a combination of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan grapes, such as would be favoured in the Rhone. 

Once poured or decanted, it quickly softens in taste. We drank it last night with sirloin steaks and roasted parsnips, to which it seemed admirably suited. Faugeres wines, when you find them, can come at prices much higher than Waitroses’s, but this one, even if it is an introductory offer, is certainly no disappointment. 

Friends whose taste buds you trust are a good way of gaining advice on wines you might not otherwise buy.  Waitrose sell it by the case and half-case as well as in single bottles. I’ll be on the lookout for it again.

4 July 2014