Malcolm Jolley recommends Domaine Maby from Tavel in Provence.
Winemaker Richard Maby in Tavel, January 2016.
In a post last week, Jamie recommended a rosé from the eastern part of Provence, made in the very much on trend onion skin style. Delicious, but having traveled to Tavel earlier this year, I am going to offer a counter pink wine recommendation in favour of la tradition ancienne.
At $18.95 the 2015 Domaine Maby La Forcadière Tavel Rosé is value priced bottle of wine for the reputation of the region and the quality of its contents. It’s a deep fuchsia pink Tavel, driven by Grenache (74%) and is a cuvée from Tavel’s three main terroirs: river stones, limestone and sand. The fruit notes are strawberries to red cherry. The LCBO tasting note also mention watermelon… maybe, but I think they mean a quality more like the smell of a red geranium. There is structure to it, as proper Tavel ought to have: silky tannins that don’t grip, but make their presence known.
This is, as the Tavelites like to stress, un vin gastronomique. It’s made to be paired to a meal. Rosé evolved in Tavel from their light red wines. Here’s a wine that will do great justice to grilled chicken, or a spring inspired pasta dish.
I met the maker of this wine in January. Richard Maby is latest in a line of his family to make wine from vines as old as 70 years in a stone building on the outskirts of the village of Tavel. An interesting man, making interesting wines, Maby is committed to sustainable farming and using as little sulphur as he can in his wines. He’s considered part of a new guard in the region, and I expect the prestige of the house will only rise. Find out more about what his he is up to at domainemaby.fr.
Malcolm Jolley is a founding editor of Good Food Revolution and Executive Director of Good Food Media, the company that publishes it. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
