The Noble Writ: Comfort Wine

There are six broad regional Vin de Pays (VdP), with Vin de Pays d'Oc being the most commonly seen on U.S. store shelves, each of which contains numerous departmental VdP whose borders match one of France's departments (like a state), and each of these contain numerous local Vin de Pays whose borders may be geographic or based on some historical tradition. Today's wine is a Vin de Pays de Hérault, a departmental VdP, meaning that all of the grapes used come from somewhere in the department of Hérault.

The grapes used to make today's wine are carignan and syrah. Carignan suffers from a poor reputation as growers pushed it to produce very high yields of grapes (which, sadly, is permitted under the wine laws) for decades. The resulting wine is diffuse, weedy and not very pleasant. But, when carignan vines get older, and their crop is significantly reduced, the wines can be very good indeed.

Syrah hardly needs an introduction any more. It's the great grape of Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie and Cornas in the northern Rhône, and it has been spreading throughout California over the past twenty-five years.

Today's wine, as well as others from Ch. D'Oupia, are available locally at Bon Vivant Wines, where the Les Hérétiques costs $10 a bottle.

2007 Les Hérétiques Vin du Pays de Hérault: Deep, full, almost opaque purple in the glass. Nose is ripe blackberry, but nicely cut by high-toned aromas from the syrah. Quite full and flavorful in the mouth, with plenty of fruit. There are some nice, slightly rustic tannins giving an element of structure. Good length.

While this wine is worthy of contemplation, I also highly recommend just taking big mouthfuls of it to wash down some freshly grilled lamb. The interplay of the fat with the tannins, and the slightly gamy meat with the fruit is not to be missed.

Dave Nelson is the author of the blog Beer, Wine and Whisky. He writes about wine for Gut Check every Tuesday.