There are times when I wonder if my wine-tasting preferences are just a little bizarre. True, I enjoy the really heavy and tannic wines of Madiran and Cahors which are not to everybody's taste. And there is a danger that descriptions such as "serious", "complex" or "needs food" can disguise wines which are pretty unapproachable. And then along comes Andrew Jefford's "The New France" which supports my view that there are many many really good and interesting wines to be discovered in France, and that moment of self-doubt evaporates.
So another encouraging moment comes when Anthony Peregrine in the Telegraph is brave enough to promote the unfashionable idea that there are hidden wine gems in some of the lesser known parts of France.
"I get highly irritable when in wine-bore mode, and one of the things that fuses my plugs, is the criticism that French wines are too complex, too arrogantly varied or too inaccessible. Dear God. We might as well dismiss the pretentious abundance of the vegetable world. Or smack Dickens for wilful inventiveness."
Fortunately I never get highly irritable and what me? a wine-bore??
So he includes some top flight Madiran, Jurancon, Cahors and Irouleguy producers in his list of recommendations in the SouthWest, together with some of the undoubted stars of Alsace, Provence, Jura, Languedoc and Provence.
Hoorah! - see the full article
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