What bottle should you bring to dinner when you’re not sure what’s on the menu, or the tastes of the hosts? What to gift to the person who already has a cellar full of wine?
Bring a bottle of something completely unexpected, the sort of wine they wouldn’t buy themselves. Like a sweet wine or Rancio Sec.
Sweet, because no one ever buys themselves sweet wines – and yet, if you’ve ever poured one around after dinner, I’ll bet everyone oohed and aahed – even those who profess to not like sweet wines. Because there’s a difference between a cheap, off-dry wine and a sweet wine that’s made from grapes that have been painstakingly protected long into the autumn, the concentrated juice squeezed out to create an incredible hedonistic elixir. Even the sweet-wine doubters end up agreeing: these are small miracles, wines that are packed not just with sugar but with acidity and complexity.
Rancio Sec because few people even know what one is but will appreciate it once they are introduced. In short, it’s a sweet wine that’s been left to ferment until dry, so it has lots of the nutty, fruity, caramel notes you might find in a sweet wine, but it’s savoury. And because it packs in the best of both worlds, it’s incredibly versatile at table.
And Fontanel because this winery in France’s Roussillon region excels at both.
Fontanel is in Tautavel, which is in Rivesaltes, an appellation in the sunny, ruggedly beautiful south-east corner of France dedicated to sweet wines. The appellation takes its name from the town of the same name, just north of Perpignan, though the wines can come from some 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) spread through Roussillon and a little into the Aude. What this varied land has in common is a difficult landscape, warm, dry and rocky, the plots squeezed into the craggy foothills of the Fenouillèdes, Corbières, Aspres and Albères mountain ranges.
What thrives here (besides goats and thistles) is Grenache, the same grape that grows on the other side of the mountains where it’s called Garnacha (or Garnatxa in Catalan). In fact, Roussillon was part of the kingdom of Aragón until 1659. (This and more fascinating information on the grape variety can be found in our online Oxford Companion to Wine.) As in Priorat on the Spanish side, in Roussillon the variety can get prodigiously ripe – perfect for sweet wines, which is why Grenache – whether Blanc (white), Gris (grey) or Noir (black, for red wines) – must make up at least 75% of all Rivesaltes PDO wines.
To preserve that sweet juiciness, growers making Rivesaltes add a little spirit to arrest the fermentation. The most straightforward version is Grenat, made from red Grenache and bottled young, when it’s still grenadine-red. The more interesting versions, in my opinion, are the Tuilé (made from red and white Grenache) and Ambré (only Grenache Blanc and Gris), which are aged at least two years.
At Domaine Fontanel, the Ambré is aged much longer: their 2015 was aged for seven years in oak barrels, then mellows further in bottle. The result glows golden in the glass and is as smooth as satin, with toffee and marmalade flavours and a light nuttiness that adds a relieving savour. It’s sweet but not cloying, the acidity and slightly elevated alcohol (it’s 16%) giving it lift and zing. It turns out in fact to be a team favourite: Julia recommended it recently, as did Jancis in her Financial Times column last Saturday.
Fontanel’s Rancio Sec is harder to find, but very well worth the hunt. Here’s the story: in 2017, Elodie and Matthieu Collet, a young couple who’d met in agricultural school in Lille, found their way down to Roussillon, where they began working with Pierre and Marie-Claude Fontaneil, fifth-generation grape-growers who’d started their own estate – named Domaine Fontanel (without the i), in 1989. In 2017, the Collets purchased the 25-ha (62-acre) estate, transitioning to organic viticulture, and committing to preserve the wines that the Fontaneils already had in process. One of them was the 2015 Ambré mentioned above; another was a cask of Rancio Sec from 2007.
At one point, every grape-growing family in Roussillon had a cask or glass bonbonne of Rancio Sec, a non-fortified, spontaneously fermented wine made from super-ripe grapes that they aged in an oxidative way, sometimes even putting the bonbonnes in the sun to bake in its heat, and adding in new wine every vintage. The practice had just about died out by 2000, but the Fontaneils held on to one last cask, made from fruit off vines planted as far back as 1908 – mostly Grenaches Blanc and Gris but with a smattering of Macabeu, Malvoise du Roussillon, Carignan Blanc and various lesser-known varieties. When the Collets tasted it, they knew the world needed to know about it, and they bottled it, in half-litre bottles, in May 2018 as L’Ancêtre Rancio Sec 2007 Côtes Catalanes. The wine is stunningly complex, with a nutty, cashew-like richness carrying a mother-lode of citrus and spice flavours, saline and umami to boot. It’s a wine to sip slowly (it's intense, and also 17% alcohol) with nuts before dinner or with cheese after dinner, or to pair with pâté or foie gras for a show-stopping appetiser course.
There is no 2007 left at the estate, but there are still bottles to be found around the US, where it’s distributed by Hauz Alpenz. And if you can’t find it, be patient: the Collets were so inspired by the wine that they began making their own Rancio Sec, with the Fontaneil’s input, in 2018, so there will be more in the future. But until then, there is always the Ambré, a hedonistic treasure in its own right.
Find the No 66 Ambré 2015 Rivesaltes
Find the L’Ancêtre Rancio Sec 2007 Côtes Catalanes
Photos courtesy Domaine Fontanel.
For more delicious Rivesaltes wines, see our tasting notes database.
