It’s quite a while since I recommended a southern French red in this slot, which is strange since I still think that this category offers possibly the best wine value in the world: hand-crafted, single domaine wines with real personality but, unfortunately for their makers, insufficient fame and standing in the world of wine to command high prices. This one sells for £6.50 from Vine Trail in Bristol, from under $7 in the US and from under €5 in France – and it’s delicious.
I tasted this wine in a small line-up of Languedoc 2003s, including the famous Mas de Daumas Gassac hailed in Mondovino, and other wines in between these two extremes of pricing. The Mas Neuf was the bottle I chose to take from the tasting table to the dining table. (Mas de Daumas Gassac 2003 may get there in the end but both bottles I tried were uncompromisingly tough on the first night, much more approachable on the second, but one can’t help feeling that that great Aniane terroir is rather swamped by such an interloper as Cabernet Sauvignon.)
The problem with so many 2003s is that the grapes dried on the vine, resulting in very dry tannins and a sandpaper-like finish on the palate. In the Mas Neuf, this phenomenon is well counterbalanced by a great mouthful of ripe, positive, peppery fruit with lush herby flavours. The wine is relatively simple – just 10 per cent saw any oak – but is beautifully balanced and I reckon could be drunk any time over the next two years. This blend of mainly Syrah, with Grenache and some Mourvèdre and Carignan, the grapes most at home in this corner of the world, is ‘just’ 13.5 per cent and could happily be served at more or less any temperature. Vine Trail reports that it won four-star praise from La Revue du Vin de France.
Honestly – what more could you ask for? To my mind the Costières de Nîmes is one of the most interesting southern French appellations and this is far from the only bargain to be found there. It’s on the cusp of the southern Rhône and the Languedoc and combines virtues from both – soils deposited by the Rhône but a glossiness of fruit, perhaps a result of the influence of the nearby Camargue. Both Syrah and Grenache do particularly well here but the wines seem to have just a little more polish on this lower land than many of those in the Côtes du Rhône appellation on the left bank of the Rhône. Ch Grande Cassagne has forged a great reputation for its Costières de Nîmes wines of all colours. Other thoroughly reliable names include Ch de Nages and Mourges du Grès. (Ch Mas Neuf is not to be confused, by the way, with Domaine Mas Neuf of Mireval.)
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