Madiran is a village in the South West of France between the Landes forest and the Pyrénées mountains. They have been making wine probably since Roman times, but at least since 1030 when the monastery was built. Like in many other places, the monks made a wine that was much appreciated by the pilgrims on the road to Compostella.
While its reputation remained mostly local, the 1990s saw a revolution in winemaking that propelled this wine and grape on the international scene.
Tannat
The base grape of Madiran AOC is Tannat. It is aptly named because the defining characteristic of Tannat is its tannins. They are intense and grippy, and poor versions of wines made with this grape will make your tongue feel like sandpaper. It is originally native to southwest France. Nowadays it’s considered the national grape of Uruguay, and also widely cultivated in Argentina.
Because of the sheer amount of tannins, grapes must be destemmed (the stems contain lots of tannins), and traditionally, Madiran was aged for a long time to soften the tannins. But the drawback of ageing is that the fresh fruit notes get lost by the time the tannins are more polished.
Micro-oxygenation
In the early 1990s, a vigneron from Madiran named Patrick Ducournau found a solution for this. He figured out that you could get all the tannin softening of oak ageing without losing the freshness of the fruit or imparting flavours by slowly streaming bubbles of oxygen into the wine.
And we are not talking about Champagne levels of bubbles here: it’s about 3cl of oxygen per litre of wine slowly diffused per month.
This practice revolutionized winemaking far outside of Madiran. It can soften up wines in bad vintages and has seen some wide use in Bordeaux, Chile and Italy. It is one of the tools favoured by Michel Rolland, the Parker-friendly flying winemaker.
More controversially, it is used by unscrupulous winemakers who mimick oak barrel ageing by combining micro-oxygenation with oak chips to impart the oak flavours to the wine. While this is prohibited in many old world appellations, it is a very cheap way to make wines in that style.
Madiran AOC
Madiran AOC is for still red wines only. There is a white appellation covering the same area, named Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh AOC. It makes delicious sweet white wines (but that’s for another week).
Madiran must be made of at least 60% Tannat by AOC rules, although many good producers use 90% or even 100% Tannat. Its blending partners are Cabernet Franc or Fer Servadou (a local cousin of Cab Franc) and even Cabernet Sauvignon.
Despite the use of micro-oxygenation, this is a wine that benefits from bottle ageing, so expect to drink them at least 5 years after the vintage. The best ones peak at around 10 years after harvest.
Like Barolo, these wines can be frustrating, going from too young to too old quite fast. And given their structure, these are wines you want to drink with hearty food. Think stews or fatty meat dishes like Cassoulet or Ossobuco. Sipping them on their own can be an intense experience.
In Canada, most of the wines you will find retail somewhere between $20 and $30. They make a great wine to keep in your cellar for a few years or drink in the middle of winter.
Until next week, happy drinking !