Travel a couple of hours south from Bordeaux you’ll find yourself in an area of France, close to the foothills of the Pyrenees, where they produce a range of very distinctive wines, most of which are barely known outside the immediate region. The climate this far south is quite warm, so chunky, full-bodied reds abound, but this is also the home of one of my favourite sweet wines: the fresh, honeyed Jurançon. You’ll occasionally see a bottle in the UK; if you do, I recommend you give it a try.
But back to those big reds. I was given a bottle of Madiran a while back and promised that I wouldn’t open it for at least 3 years. Well, it’s now spring 2024 (even if the weather doesn’t feel like it!) and, as the bottle is from the 2019 vintage, I decided it was time to rescue it from our wine rack under the stairs.
Chateau Barrejat is made with the main grape variety from the Madiran region, Tannat, but with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc added. I often mention old vines in my blogs but, here, they claim that the vines are aged between 80 and 200 years – truly historic!
The old vines gave the wine a real depth and intensity. There’s some black fruit there but really the fruit flavours are more dried than fresh – prunes and figs – and all with a pronounced spicy, savoury oak background. I opened and decanted it a couple of hours before drinking to get some air into it to release more of the flavours and to soften the tannins which were still quite noticeable, even in a 4 year old wine.
The food match? Probably the locals would choose Cassoulet but, for us, it had to be a robust full-flavoured casserole. Beef would have worked fine, but we used some venison that we’d frozen last autumn instead and that paired well, too.
The far south-west is an interesting area of France, often ignored by tourists, but wine lovers should take note as Jurançon and Madiran are just 2 of the exciting hidden gems to be found there.
Wine talks and tastings 