Vieilles Vignes Rouge
Corbières AOP · Languedoc, France
- 125ml
- £5.50
- 175ml
- £8
- Bottle
- £32
- Grape
- Carignan · Syrah · Grenache · Marselan
- Vintage
- 2024
- Region
- Corbières, Languedoc
The short version
Bought in the 1600s by Louis XIV's court portrait painter, and still with his descendants nine generations on.
Part of it is made by carbonic maceration — the Beaujolais method — which is why a structured Corbières drinks so juicy.
The best-value red on the list, and the one built for the fire.
How it tastes
Aroma & flavour
Sell it with
Pork Chuleta, Charred Hispi, Tomato Salsa & Black Garlic
Carignan tannin is grippy and slightly rustic — it scrubs pork fat off the palate, so it wants exactly this. The peppery Syrah mirrors the char instead of fighting it, and the carbonic-macerated portion keeps enough juice in the wine to handle the charred hispi and the sweetness of black garlic.
Where to take them next
The detail — if they ask
Two techniques in one wine. The Syrah is destemmed and fermented conventionally with punch-downs; the Carignan goes in whole-bunch for carbonic maceration — the Beaujolais trick — which is why a firm, structured Corbières drinks this juicy. Aged in stainless steel, so there is no oak in the way of the fruit.
Château Fontarèche
- Producer
- One of the oldest estates in Corbières, at Canet d'Aude. It passed to Pierre Mignard — portrait painter to Louis XIV — in the seventeenth century and has stayed with his descendants for nine generations.
- Region
- Corbières is the largest appellation in Occitanie and is worked by wind: the cold Cers off the Atlantic side and the warm Marin off the Mediterranean. Wind dries the fruit, limits disease and concentrates the berries.
- Grapes
- Carignan gives the tannic frame and dark fruit — the oldest parcel was planted in 1962. Syrah brings the pepper. Marselan, a modern cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache, adds colour and fine tannin.
- Soils
- An ancient limestone terrace of gravel and limestone under large surface pebbles that hold the day's heat.