Wine region: France, Madiran & Pacherenc

“… Sebastien is a man of hot temper.”
“He is a southerner”, admitted Sir Lulworth; to be geographically exact he hails from the French slopes of the Pyrenees. I took that into consideration when he nearly killed the gardener’s boy the other day for bringing him a spurious substitute for sorrel. One must always make allowances for origin and locality and early environment; ‘Tell me your longitude and I’ll know what latitude to allow you’, is my motto.”

The Blind Spot - Saki

Confidentiel - description of a wine which is known only to connoisseurs and the local growers.

There have been vineyards in Madiran or Vic-Bilh (to give its original dialect name) since the 3rd century and, in the Middle Ages, pilgrims en route for Santiago de Compostela appreciated the wines. Pacherenc may be made from any one of a variety of grapes: arrufiac (or arrufiat or ruffiac) is traditional, although many growers are turning to gros and petit manseng and even a little sauvignon. Dry, off dry or sweet, these wines are unusual and quite distinct from Jurançon with flavours of spiced bread and mint. In Madiran the traditional grape variety is Tannat, its very name suggestive of rustic astringency, and it constitutes anything between 40 and 60 per cent of the blend with the Cabernets and a little Fer (locally called Pinenc) making up the remainder. The soil in Madiran is endowed with deposits of iron and magnesium and is so compacted that neither rain nor vines can easily penetrate – these are dark, intense, minerally wines. As with Jurançon (q.v.) a group of young wine makers have worked hard to promote the identity of their wines. These growers are known locally as “Les Jeunes Mousquetaires” and foremost amongst them is Alain Brumont whose achievements at Chateau Montus have garnered worldwide recognition. His passion for new wood is unfettered; he experiments constantly with oak from different regions of France and with different periods of ageing. He also believes that true Madiran has as near 100% Tannat as possible. Patrick Ducournau, meanwhile, has harnessed modern technology, in his invention of the microbules machine. This device injects tiny bubbles of oxygen into the wine after the fermentation; the idea being that the normal method of racking off the lees disturbs the wine too much, whereas this gentler method allows slow aeration leading to wines of greater suppleness.