WINE OF THE WEEK: Rébus Gaillac 2024, Gaillac, France

£10.50, or 2 for £18, Ocado; £9.75, Booths

It’s always good to see a wine from southwest France in the UK, by which I mean the Midi-Pyrenées, the region to the south and east of Bordeaux and the Dordogne that administratively is now part of the larger Occitanie region, together with Languedoc.

Still with me? Just think of it as the large area in the bottom left of the hexagon with Toulouse its capital city.

The wines of this part of France are different. People here have always done their own thing, with their own distinctive grape varieties, and they’ve been doing it for a long time – in the case of Gaillac, perhaps before any other region in France. Wine growing almost certainly dates back to ancient Gaul here.

And yet we don’t see many of the southwest’s wines in Britain, especially in supermarkets – a bit of Cahors and white Saint-Mont, but not much else. It’s easier to play safe with recognisable names if you’re trying to shift supermarket-size quantities.

Rébus Gaillac, made by the Vinovalie group, doesn’t aim to be instantly recognisable. It sets out to be intriguing. To work out the rebus (puzzle) under the name on the label you have to know your local grape varieties, but we’ll come back to that once I've told you about the wine.

It’s deep coloured and medium-bodied with crunchy hedgerow berry, blackcurrant and redcurrant fruit, herbal and black pepper notes, appetising freshness and low-level tannin. If you like Loire Cabernet Franc, you’ll like this.

Rébus is made from AOP Gaillac’s most important grape variety, Braucol. Or that’s what the grape is called in Gaillac. Its principal name is Fer, or Fer Servadou. Now take a look at the rebus.

To keep you on your toes, Fer/Braucol is called Mansois in Marcillac (a small AOP to the northeast of Gaillac) and Pinenc in Madiran (to the southwest).

If you’ve worked up an appetite after all that, Rébus 2024's low tannin means you can pair it with seared salmon (with green peppercorns and chervil or Persian citrus spiced, for example), the likes of falafel and even with bloomy rind cheeses such as Wigmore and Brie de Meaux before they’ve reached the runny stage. But it also goes well with red meat, lamb especially. 12%. Empty bottle weight: 582g

Rébus Gaillac 2024, Gaillac, France

£10.50, or 2 for £18 when you order by 7.10.25, Ocado; £9.75, Booths

#wine #France #Fer #Braucol #wineandfood #winepairing #red #supermarket