Empty Glasses

When wandering at the SAQ a couple of weeks ago, while looking for an inexpensive red to serve with (and partly in) that night’s beef stew, my eye caught sight of a curiosity. A red wine from Marcillac, a tiny AOC from the south west of France which was still unknown to me. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that it was made from 100% Mansois (a.k.a Fer Servadou), a varietal I had no clue existed and it is imported by Rézin. Basically, it’s a step into the unknown, which I love to do. And at 15$ for a bottle, there was little to lose.

Jean-Luc Matha produces two wines, Cuvée Lairis and Cuvée Peirafi, which are both made entierly from Mansois. The Cuvée Lairis is fermented in stainless steel for 10-12 days and sees no oak, which would explain how fruit-driven the resulting wine is. As Jean-Luc Matha said:

“To use new wood, one must have grapes that provide a certain material. Mansois does not do that; Instead, we’ve simply turned our attention to achieving extreme concentration on the vine and in tank, which will ultimately help our wine to age gracefully.”

It turns out it was a really good choice. Packed with loads of spice and fruit, it was a little rough around the edges on the first sip. This rusticity passed quickly and left a wine with a solid backbone, but left enough room for all the components of the wine to express themselves clearly. As usual, balance is the key and this effort by Jean-Luc Matha really hits to sweet spot. While I don’t want to pull a Vaynerchuck, this could be summed by Beaujolais meets Cabernet Franc from Loire meets Syrah from southern France…

The Mansois is really a varietal I will try to find elsewhere, either in the other Marcillac wines available at the SAQ or from Gaillac or Madiran, where it is also used. As you can notice in the picture, the bottle was emptied rather quickly… One more empty glass!