Wine region: France, Marcillac

“As hard-working as an Auvergnat” A saying quoted in Flaubert’s Sentimental Education

La nuit a dans sa robe un trou de clair de lune.
Bois du vin: on n’a pas toujours cette fortune
Sois heureux et jouis: après nous, bien des fois,
La lune eclairera nos tombes une a une

Omar Khayyam

Marcillac lies on the Aveyron river just north west of Rodez, is linked historically to the Abbey of Conques and is the only appellation in the Aveyron region to enjoy AOC status. To the north are the barren plateaux called les causses. This is wild mountainous country gutted with deep river gorges. For nearly a thousand years vineyards were the base of the region’s economy. In 1868 phylloxera destroyed the vineyards by ninety percent. The economy was devastated and many natives of the region moved away. The style or philosophy of the wines is connected to the area and the grape variety. The vineyards are grown on terraces with very steep gradients; the soil is the reddish-purple le rougier with a schist underlay; the grape variety is mansois, otherwise known as fer servadou; only old barrels and traditional methods are used; minimal sulphur is required in the fermentation. The result? Violet-tinted, brilliant fresh reds packed with fresh currant fruits, provocative acidity and a medicinal minerality, the vinous equivalent of Chalybeate water. The medieval citizens of Rodez used to take Marcillac for their health, because it was preferable to drinking the local water. More recently, Pascal Monestier, the son of a pharmacist in Marcillac, in a thesis on the prevention of cholesterol by the consumption of wine, discovered especially high concentrations of cathecine and procyamidol – anti-cholesterol agents. Well, as the bible says, “Take a little wine for thy stomach”!

AVEYRON

Located in the south west of the Massif Central, Aveyron offers spectacular landscapes. Its plateaus, called Les Causses, are filled with flowers; they are circumscribed by the Lot and Tarn rivers which cut deep gorges into the countryside. The Lot rises in the Cévennes Mountains and flows through villages rich in history. Entraygues is situated at the confluence of the Lot and Truyère rivers; its name in Occitan means “between waters”. The town was founded in the middle of the 13th century at the same time as the castle built by Henri II, count of Rodez and fortified in 1357 and still has a strong medieval flavour.

According to Curnonsky “The Rouerge is one of those lands blessed by bounteous nature; giving us a lust for life on this planet which Man is otherwise intent on making totally uninhabitable”.

Specialities of the region include aligot (a rich purée made with Tomme cheese, butter and mashed potato), stuffed cabbage, tripous (sheep’s feet stuffed and folded up in pieces of stomach) and estofinado (salt cod cooked in walnut oil). From the rivers come trout and crayfish, from the woods beautiful ceps, and flocks of lamb (from the Causses), herds of beef from the Aubrac, bevies of game, and lard-loads of cured pork and ham roam blissfully and earthily throughout the local menus. If you’re hunkering down for some wholesome filling refreshment try Potée Auvergnate, a substantial soup of vegetables and meat. And, of course, there is cheese to please and bring you to your knees: on mange Roquefort et Cantal içi.

You’ve had a hard day thrippling in the fields or in front of a blinking computer screen. You are dwanged and snooled, not to say forswunke, and you’re feeling partial to a schooner of some revivifying red. Not an oak-breasted vanilla soft-soaper from the New World, nor something in the chomping tannin vein, but a simple ruby liquid that speaks of stones and earth. The Entraygues is the perfect paregoric, putting iron back into your blood.