Domaine Tempier Bandol, France 2013 (from £23, The Wine Society; Lay & Wheeler; Uncorked) For a certain generation of foodies, Provence’s Domaine Tempier will always have a special significance. The estate was a favourite of those celebrated shapers of the British and American conception of the Provencal good life, the food writers Richard Olney and Elizabeth David and Californian chef Alice Waters. And like them, its name became synonymous, from the 1970s on, with the Mediterranean idyll of long lunches of daube de boeuf on sun-dappled terraces. The red wines – deep and meaty and fragrant with rosemary, thyme and lavender – still play on that appeal. And whether it’s the stunning set of three special cuvees from special plots of the Peyraud family vineyard in the Bandol appellation, or the original vineyard blend, their special charm remains intact.
La Bastide Blanche Bandol, France 2013 (£14.79, Waitrose) If Tempier is the standout name in the post-impressionist postcard land of Bandol, other estates are also capable of making wines that team very well with a David or Olney recipe that’s been bubbling away for hours in a Le Creuset pot. Thanks in no small part to the work of the Peyraud family over the last half-century, Bandol’s producers have become masters of mourvèdre, a grape that tends to play second fiddle elsewhere in southern France, but which seems to have an affinity with the specific play of light, land and coastal breeze to the east of Cassis and Marseille. The leathery complexity of Château de Pibarnon Bandol 2012 (£32, Joseph Barnes Wines) is a match for Tempier, while La Bastide Blanche offers a lot of dark and savoury intensity for the money.
Boutinot Les Cépages Oubliés Mourvèdre, IGP Pays d’Oc, France 2013 (from £6.49, Rannoch Scott Wines; Wine and the Vine; Connollys Wine; Eynsham Cellars) Although I wouldn’t say Bandol was expensive – at least not compared to more famous southern French rivals such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape – it doesn’t come at midweek drinking prices. But it is possible to find mourvèdre-based wines that offer some of the variety’s curious mix of earthy, meaty and herby notes for under a tenner. UK importer Boutinot does a fine version, in an easy-drinking, but still deep and wild affair from vineyards further west along the Mediterranean in the Languedoc. And if you follow the Med to Yecla in southeastern Spain, you’ll find mourvèdre translated to monastrell and a very different cherry, red plum and rosehip-scented juicy style in Bodega Castaño Monastrell 2015 (£8.99, Noel Young Wines).
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