Saint Chinian and wild boar – on the road with Jonny Gibson from Wine Discoveries

07/04/2008

“Encore du sanglier” enquires Michel and I have to admit I can’t resist. We’re just outside the village of Saint-Chinian on the edge of the Haut Languedoc forest with our winemaking friends the Depaules. The sun is sliding into the horizon and we are enjoying a glass or three of Michel’s finest with a leg of roasted wild boar. It doesn’t get much better than this.

We’re here to catch up with a few of our winemakers and track down some new ones. It’s a trip we make several times a year, sometimes as a family, sometimes not, searching for great wines from small-scale producers for our wine business in the UK. I know what you’re thinking, but trust me, for every successful cellar visit there are probably twenty or so less inspiring ones. It’s thirsty work, but someone has to do it.

Winemaking and food continue to be the heartbeat of regional France and the sheer diversity of wine styles that the country produces never ceases to amaze me. Despite what you may read about the crisis with French wine, my experience on the ground is that the quality of mid priced and upwards wines continues to improve as a younger generation with new ideas take over from their parents. With 175,000 people making wine in France there is still plenty of opportunity for uncovering new rising stars.

Rugby playing Michel Depaule is a good example. His Domaine la Maurerie Syrah, Grenache and Carignan red wines are delicious expressions of the area (blackberries and woodland fruits with scents of the wild herbs of the garrique) and perfect partners with red meats – viande en sauce as his wife Maria puts it. In fact the Languedoc region has twice as much land planted with vines as the whole of Australia but a lot of the good stuff never reaches our shores as the smaller scale winemakers don’t make enough to get on the radar of the supermarkets. This suits us just fine of course.

Why not buy a special mixed case of Michel's elegant red wines?

A specially selected Mature Times Mixed Reds Case £79 SAVE £6.68

The case contains 6 bottles of each of:
Saint Chinian ‘Esprit du Terroir’ 2005
Saint Chinian ‘ Vieilles Vignes’ 2005

For this and more than 100 secret discoveries from small scale producers in France, Spain and Italy please visit the link below.

Relevant links

• Wine Discoveries (Opens a new window)