Château Jouclary, Cabardès

If you've bought wine from me in Cork's English Market or here at the Wine Depot, you'll know that I'm tiresomely partial to the Cabardès blends of Merlot, Grenache and Syrah that we buy from Château Jouclary, an estate just twenty minutes from the fortified city of Carcassonne in the north-west of the Languedoc. You'll mostly be doing well to escape without buying a bottle even if you've only come in to ask when the paint shop next door will be open. Naturally, then, I'm simply delighted that the small following for this wine among my regular customers in Cork and environs looks to be spreading to Dublin too, thanks to the grapevine of social networks. Go straight to the top of the class, Laurence Veale, for a video tasting of the Château's cuvée Tradition (their inexpensive, unoaked wine) that confirms all my subjective suspicions: this is a marvellous red wine. You can see Mr V's genuine and persuasive tasting here: And here, from the still unpublished report of my trip in February to Vinisud, the biennial trade fair for Mediterranean wine, is a picture of Pascal Gianesini, who seems to be getting things completely right as he succeeds his father in charge of the estate. For as long as there's a flight from Cork to Carcassonne, we're only about two hours away from each other door to door. I have in mind all the time to invite Pascal over for a tasting dinner or some such. You never know, it might yet happen. Please leave a comment if you'd like to begin a lobby group, or of course with any other opinion. In the meantime, try a bottle of Pascal's wine, and review it yourself - either on our product page, on LouderVoice, or on the Sour Grapes post: here's the link to our shop again.