My Man(saucy) Love Affair with Marcillac and Gaillac

Sometimes there are just certain wine regions or grapes that just hit all the right notes for you.  For many collectors, this means Burgundy or Barolo, but as someone who is not quite in that tax bracket yet, I have to turn to other regions. Believe me, I still love and drink my fair share of Barolo, Barbaresco and Burgundy, it's just not an everyday kinda thing. In the past couple years, there have been many regions that do this for me, particularly the Jura, Savoie, Valle d'Aoste, and Loire Valley. What attracts me to certain regions like these are that they have distinctive native grapes that are rarely (if ever) grown elsewhere, and the wines taste of the place--like they could not come from anywhere else. Having discovered and been introduced to many regions that fit this bill for me, it's still always exciting to add new regions to that list. Of late, that new region has been Gaillac and Marcillac in southwestern France.

I'll admit that for a long while I had sort of lumped Gaillac and Marcillac together with other southwestrn French appellations like Cahors and Madiran, which are often (though not always) too big and burly for my tastes. But boy has that changed in the last six months or so. It all began with the wines from Causse Marines. Those bottles with little clowns on the labels were not fooling around--there was magic in those bottles.

The 2009 Causse Marines Gaillac Rouge is meaty, herbal, dark and smooth. Just a totally different flavor and taste than I had come to expect from southwest France. It's a blend of Braucal (also known as Fer Servadou), Duras, Prunelart, Alicante Bouchet and Syrah, all farmed biodynamically. This wine made me sit up and take notice, inspiring me to explore. And explore I did!

I have since had the 2008 Gaillac from Causse Marines, which I think I slightly prefer--a little lighter on it's feet (not as warm a vintage as 2009), slightly more angular (in a good way for me). I then tracked down a bottle of the 2009 Causse Marines Marcillac, where the grape known in Gaillac as Fer Servadou or Braucal is instead called Mansois. Confused yet? Well fret not, because what's in the bottle is almost like Chinon, only from southwest France! High-toned red fruit, with a smoked bell pepper, herbal thing that reminds me so much of Loire Cab Franc. Incredible! It's been my experience that Gaillac is slightly darker in it's fruit, Marcillac a little brighter by comparison.

The next big discovery for me was the 2009 Domaine des Costes Rouge Marcillac. Oh my god!! I could drink this wine again and again without tiring of it. For a wine retailing in the $14-$16 range, it just has so much going for it. Bright raspberry fruit, with that same smoked bell pepper, smoked paprika, herbal, earthy thing. So lively and beautiful. The domaine is currently converting to biodynamics. This wine is now sold out (fear not--the 2010 is now on Bay Area retail shelves). Had a bottle of the 2010 the other night, and though it was good, I think it needs a few more months in bottle to really come together.

Oh, but it doesn't end at Mansois and Fer Servadou. Robert and Bernard Plageoles have been making wine in Gaillac for two generations now, resuscitating forgotten native grapes. One such bottling that I love is the 2009 Plageoles Prunelart, which is a native Gaillac grape. This wine was kind of reductive upon first opening, but with some air time blossomed into a wild, fresh huckleberry beauty with a fresh rosemary and violet quality that I found seductive. Robert Camuto has a great chapter about the Plageoles in his book Corkscrewed: Adventures in the New French Wine Country. Worth a read if you want to learn more about them.

I'll finish this post with one last wine that I had at The Ten Bells wine bar in New York City upon my last trip there over New Years. The 2010 Nicolas Carmarans "L'Altre" Vin de Pays de l'Aveyron is 100% Fer Servadou, with gorgeous black and purple fruits and an underlying smoky minerality that was mesmerizing. Great wine, especially for $32 on the Ten Bells list. Sorry about the poor picture quality, but it was dark in there. Only sad thing is I don't think it makes it out to San Francisco, otherwise I would be drinking the shit out of that wine.

Hope that this convinces you to track down a bottle of Gaillac or Marcillac, if you haven't yet been seduced by it's charms. Please, if you have any favorites that I didn't mention, do tell! I hear the Domaine du Cros Marcillac is something special, but once again not available yet in SF.