Tag Archives: Tannat

Vignobles Marie Maria Greviere Madiran 2020

25 October 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Other Red Blends from Southwest, France

Tannat 80%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%

Purchase Price: $17.99

Decanter 93, James Suckling 91, Wilfred Wong 91, ElsBob 90

ABV14.5%

A very deep ruby to deep purple wine with aromas of black fruit, oak, and spice. Full-bodied, fruity with expressive tannins, subdued acidity, and a long finish. At a little more than 5 years it is still going strong. It will keep for another 5 years.

An excellent fine wine at a reasonable price. Current prices range from $16-26.

Through the Grapevine: Madiran, a village in southwestern France, is closely associated with the Tannat grape. Situated in the heart of the Pyrenean region where Tannat is believed to have originated, the village has long been considered the grape’s spiritual home.

The Madiran AOC, created in 1948, produces only red wines from vineyards planted to at least 60% Tannat. Under AOC rules, the wines themselves must also contain a minimum of 60% Tannat, a dual requirement that preserves the region’s traditional style. While some producers bottle 100% Tannat, many wines are blended with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Fer Servadou.

Fer Servadou, a traditional grape of southwest France, was likely spread by Benedictine monks and pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James. Known for its hard, “iron-like” wood and bright acidity, it remains an important blending partner to Tannat in the wines of Madiran.

In the 11th century, the Benedictine order, strongly influenced by 910 AD Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, was expanding across southwestern France. One community established the Saint‑Vincent monastery at Madiran. The monks were literate, organized, and agriculturally innovative, and they cared deeply about viticulture. They introduced terracing, pruning systems, record keeping, and cellar management. Under their stewardship, the Tannat grape shifted from a rustic local variety to a deliberately cultivated one.

Madiran lies near the Via Tolosana, one of the four major French routes to Santiago de Compostela (The Way of St. James). The monastery provided pilgrims with lodging and helped establish early wine trade along the route. The monastic vineyards endured until the French Revolution in 1789, when Church lands were seized and dispersed into private hands. While the monastery’s authority vanished, the vineyards did not. The vines continued to produce fruit under new owners, allowing the Benedictines’ centuries of viticultural expertise to survive long after the monks themselves were gone.

Vina Robles The Arborist 2022

28 September 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Other Red Blends from Paso Robles, Central Coast, California

Syrah 52%, Petite Sirah 30%, Grenache 9%, Tannat 9%

Purchase Price: $19.99

Wine Enthusiast 91, James Suckling 90, Cellar Tracker 88, ElsBob 90

ABV 14.0%

A deep purple to deep garnet wine with aromas of red fruit and spice. The mouth feel is dominated by herbs and dark berries. Medium bodied with balanced tannins and acidity. A short but complete finish. Will pair well with chocolate.

A fine wine at a very reasonable price, typically found at retailers between $19–25.

Through the Grapevine: While this wine doesn’t exactly illustrate how modern scoring has shifted from its original purpose, probably just the opposite, but now seems a good time to clarify how I personally rate wines. I use the industry’s familiar terms, 90–93 as “excellent,” 87–89 as “very good”, but I also believe these words have been inflated to the point where they no longer match the sensory quality of the wines. When assigning a value, I return to the original meaning of Robert Parker’s 50–100‑point scale, where wines in the 70s were flawed, the 80s were decent, the 90s were very good, and only wines in the 95+ range were truly excellent. Over time, the language inflated to match the numbers, and the numbers inflated to match marketing needs.

When Parker created the 100‑point scale, or more accurately a 50-point scale, he intended it to be broad, honest, and fully used. Scores in the 70s and 80s were meant to be normal, sound, drinkable wines ranging from “average” to “very good.” These wines were meant to populate the central region of a normal gaussian distribution with the tails reserved for those far below and far above average. Only wines with real distinction, complexity, and character were meant to enter the 90–95 band, and the 96–100 range was reserved for truly profound bottles, and the truly expensive. In that framework, an 88 wasn’t a slight; it was a clear, respectable value that was good but not exceptional: average. The scale was designed to give consumers a realistic sense of quality across the entire market, not just the top end.

Modern wine criticism has collapsed Parker’s system upward. Scores below 85 are almost never published and below 90: rare, even though Parker explicitly defined them as perfectly drinkable. The practical scale now runs from 88 to 95, with 90 functioning as a marketing threshold rather than a qualitative one. Retail pressure, producer relationships, and consumer psychology have inflated both the numbers and the adjectives attached to them. “Very good” has become “excellent,” “excellent” has become “superb,” and the entire 80–89 range, once the heart of Parker’s system, has been reduced to a no‑man’s‑land that critics, and marketers, avoid. The result is a rating culture where words and numbers no longer align with their original meanings, and where the nuance Parker built into the scale has been replaced by commercial necessity.

In the end, a 10‑ or 20‑point scale would have produced far more clarity, but that’s not the world we live in.

Domaine Berthoumieu Madiran Cuvee Charles de Batz 2014

27 March 2018 By in Red Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

W Charles Batz 2012Other Red Blends from Madiran, South West, France

90% tannat

10% cabernet sauvignon

14.5% alcohol

Purchased: 12 July 2017  –  $19.99

Opened: 25 March 2018

els:  9.2/10

Wine Enthusiast:  93

France is the 2nd largest producer of wine in the world, just behind Italy and ahead of Spain, representing about 21% of the global wine market. The country is responsible for creating some of the most recognizable old world wines on the planet, from the bubbly Champagnes in the cool north to world-class Bordeaux along the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers to the GSMs in the warm Mediterranean south. There are 17 major wine-producing regions in the country along with another 28 smaller areas, all growing 96 varieties of predominate grapes with Merlot and Grenache the most common. Reds account for almost 70% of the 2 million plus acres planted in vines, with whites accounting for the remainder. As with the other major European wine producers, France’s vineyard acreage has been shrinking over the last couple of decades due to less demand from their home population and increased market pressures from new world producers.

The South West or Sud Quest region, France’s 5th largest wine area, begins in the central north on the eastern edge of the Bordeaux region and continues 150 miles to the southwest towards the Pyrenees, ending near the Spanish border. The region includes 25 AOCs with 120,000 areas planted in grapes producing around 270 million bottles of wine every year; roughly 3% of total for all of France.  The Romans initially cultivated the area for grapes and had it awash in wine before the Bordeaux region even thought about growing their own. But because Bordeaux controlled the wine trading routes they strangled the South West market, through taxes and laws, in the 13th century and the area never regained its prominence in the France, or the world. The area predominately grows red Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Tannat grapes along with white Semillon Sauvignon, and Ugni Blanc grapes.  The climate is a combination of oceanic and continental with cool wet winters and springs, offset by warm, sunny summers.

Madiran AOC is named after the town of Madiran in the Gascony Provence near the Adour River, 90 miles south of Bordeaux, 80 miles west of Toulouse and 60 miles from the Spanish border. The AOC is available only to red wine containing 40-60% Tannat, although 100% is acceptable (makes no sense to me), and blended with Cabernet Franc and or Cabernet Sauvignon. There are 3200 acres of vineyards in the Madiran AOC producing about 10 million bottles of red wine annually. The Pyrenees to the south have deposited, a generally, well-drained alluvium of clays and silts, rich in limestone interspersed with lots of red iron pebbles and stones. The area enjoys warm summer days rarely topping 80°F with rainfall averaging 1-2″ per month with a few inches of snow in the winter.

The Tannat grape, as its name suggest is very high in tannins, is native to the South West region of France. It is not a commonly grown grape, ranking at 100 out of all grapes grown globally but in Madiran it is king. There are about 15,000 acres planted worldwide or much less than 1% of the total grape acreage.  The wine from the grape is often blended with “softer” wines such as Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon to reduce its astringency. To further soften up the wine they are kept in oak barrels for up to 20 months.  The wines exhibit a deep tannic structure with notes of raspberry.  They are very dark in color and have great aging potential. Tannat grapes are high in procyanidins, a condensed tannin class of flavonoid with high antioxidant values that affects the wines astringency, color and mouth-feel.

Cabernet Sauvignon is a cross, believed to have occurred naturally sometime in the 1600s in southwestern France, between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. It is now the most widely planted grape in the world covering more than 700,000 acres or about 6.5% of all vines planted. France is number 1 in the world in acres planted for this grape. It is a thick-skinned grape that’s relatively easy to grow and maintain, exhibiting high tannins and acidity, producing a distinct bell pepper flavor, especially in cool climates, along with aromas of mint and eucalyptus. The grapes produce a full-bodied and dark-ruby colored wine.

The Domaine Berthoumieu  was founded in the 1850s by Virgile Dutour in the tiny village of Viella which is 5 miles northwest of Madiran. In the 1980s Didier Barré took over management of the winery from his father Louise. Today the property is in the hands of the family’s 6th generation of wine makers: Claire and Marion Bortolussi. The Berthoumieu field, part of the Domaine  Berthoumieu, is part of d’Artagnan’s homeland, aka Charles de Batz, Louis XIV’s Musketeer.

The winery has 64 acres which is planted in 85% red and 15% white grapes with the vines being 50-100 years-old.  The reds include: Tannat, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Pinenc.  The whites include: Petit Manseng, Gros Manseng, and Petit Courbu. The soils are a silty-clay, heavy in limestone with gravels and stones. The area enjoys an oceanic climate with diurnal growing season temperatures ranging from 45-80°F and rainfall ranging from 2-2.75″ per month.

After picking and sorting the grapes they are transferred to 150-210 gallon tanks for 30 days of fermentation and maceration.  The wine is then aged for 12 months in new and used oak.

A dark, dark purple, almost black wine with a ruby rim. Strong aromas of delicious raspberries  Full-bodied and powerful.  The tannins are, cut with a knife thick, and the wine is very dry.  A wonderful long, long finish.

This wine needs a strong, flavorful food pairing. Strong cheeses.  Strong tangy barbecue. Meats with strong herbs such as rosemary. Try my slow cooker rosemary stew.  I always make this slightly different so I’ll try to generalize it a bit. Start with 1-2 pounds of beef stew meat cut up in small chunks, add in a cup of beef broth, one chopped medium onion, a small can of tomato sauce (optional), a handful of baby carrots, 10 ounces of canned corn, 1 tablespoon of garlic, a cup of chopped celery, 1-2 teaspoons of dried rosemary, and 2 cups washed and sliced baby potatoes (I usually make these fairly big chunks by just quartering the baby potatoes), 1-2 teaspoons of cornstarch (thickener), salt and pepper, a dash of oregano and basil.  Add everything, except the cornstarch, salt and pepper, into the slow cooker for 8 hours, half on high, half on low.  Add the cornstarch to a half cup of warm water and mix.  Stir into the slow cooker about 15 minutes before serving.  Add water ifs needed. Salt and pepper to taste.

An outstanding wine at a fair price. Drink this year but likely good until 2025-2030. Decant and aerate for one hour, or more, before drinking.

This wine’s vintage appears to be no longer available outside of the borders of France. The 2012 vintage is still available and has ratings of 90 or more.