La Dourbie, Marius Rouge 2023

Get to know: Domaine de la Dourbie, Marius Rouge 2023

Cinsault-led and blended in wooden foudre - an organic red wine from the Hérault with juice up front and structure behind it.

Tasting Note

This opens with aromas of morello cherry and blackcurrant with a cool menthol lift running through the middle of it. Garnet, bright, and immediately friendly in the glass, Cinsault leads, so the first mouthful is all juicy direct fruit, and then the Grenache and Syrah arrive underneath with the weight and the grip - tannins that are round, settled and fully in place. The finish comes back fresh, which is the part that surprises people about a southern French red this ripe. Ten months blended in a wooden foudre has softened the edges though.

Top food pairings:

• Spaghetti with tomato, asparagus and confit garlic
• Duck breast with figs
• Anything off a barbecue

Kate Says

"Another aromatic and appealing wine from La Dourbie. With the Cinsault grape leading, you get a juicier, fruitier, more direct style of wine with Grenache and Syrah bringing extra concentration and body. It’s impressive and a lot of fun too and I have no doubt you'll enjoy it."

Producer Info

Domaine de la Dourbie has stood at Canet in the Hérault since 1781. The Serin family bought it in 2003 and rebuilt it - Bernard Serin and his son Nicolas run it now, with Laurent Graell as deputy managing director and Sophie Brun-Mérimée as oenologist and technical director. Organic since 2009, with integrated pest control, pollination, cover cropping and irrigation used sparingly on young vines only. They vinify across wooden foudres, stainless steel and terracotta.

There are beehives between the rows here and a hundred-year-old ornamental park on the property - the Serins treat the whole estate as one system, not just the vines. Cinsault is the grape everyone used for rosé and nobody took seriously; this is what happens when somebody does.

How it's made:

• Harvested at night, selected plot by plot from around the vineyard
• Fermented in stainless steel and concrete
• Blended and aged in wooden foudre for ten months
• Clay-limestone with rounded pebbles, at 40 hectolitres per hectare

Good to know:

• Region: Hérault, Languedoc, France
• Grape: Cinsault 50%, Grenache 25%, Syrah 25%
• Style: Red, still, medium-bodied
• Closure: Cork
• Vegan: Not supplied
• ABV: 14.5%
• Vintage: 2023

Why we love it:

The very polished wine. If you have been enjoying the lighter Languedoc red wines in this range, this is where to go next - more shape, more length, and still something you can drink a whole glass of without thinking too much about it.