Maury

We're going jet-setting today and at the end of the day, we're going to go drink some wine to cap it off. But, if you recall, we ended our day yesterday in the northern part of Sardinia. Well, that makes it easy. 

We drove west across the island to Alghero Airport where we hopped on a plane to Monte Carlo. Arriving at the airport and whisked away in the ultra high end sports cars preferred in the tiny nation of Monaco, we headed off for some early gambling. The Casino de Monte-Carlo does not open until much later in the day, but we've been fortunate enough to procure private entrance. Once we explained that we had so much important work to do later on the day, the locals were more than happy to escort us to our private table for chemin de fer. After our successes in the casino, we headed west along the Riviera to the beaches of Nice and Cannes to see the "beautiful people." Increadibly, as we arrived in Cannes, the skies were overcast, but turned to bright sunshine within minutes. But one can only enjoy the Cannes beaches for so long.

So, we continued west for about 90 minutes to Aix-en-Provence and another hour or so north to Roussillon. Once part of Catalonia, about half the local residents either have a preference for Catalan over French or are at least conversant in it. Our attempts to impress with the local language were an utter failure, however.

While this region has been under French control for many years, historically, it has been a battleground. At various times, it was part of France, Spain, Aragon, and Barcelona, and for an extended period was controlled by the Hapsburg dynasty. Today, on the other hand, they make wines of sorts that for the most part, North Americans have no knowledge of. Let's change that.

Today, we are drinking wines from the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) known as Maury, sitting in the larger region of Roussillon. Being part of the even larger area known as the southern Rhone, of course the grape of choice is Grenache. In Maury AOC, in fact, 75% or more of each wine must be Grenache Noir. Many other grapes are permitted, but among the ones that are most likely to be added are other forms of Grenache (gris and blanc), Syrah, Muscat, Macabeu, and Malvoisie de Rousillon. 

The wine style of choice here is vin doux naturel (naturally sweet wine). The process for making this is to fortify the wine with spirits, usually brandy, during the middle of fermentation. This deactivates the yeast and allows the wine to keep its natural sugars. After that, the wine is transferred to bonbonnes, 25 liter glass jugs for aging before being further transferred to oak barrels for periods typically ranging from 5 to 15 years.

Consumers and wine lovers need to be careful with Maury. It is extremely sweet, ultra full-bodied, high in alcohol, tannic, and fairly high in acidity. It will cellar virtually forever, but is usually not approachable for 10 years after bottling.

It tastes like a combination of desserts -- baking spices, ginger snaps, stewed strawberries, prunes, figs, and all drizzled in burnt caramel. 

We could debate how to pair this wine. It's a bit of a decision depending on your preference being dinner or dessert. If the former, foie gras is the classic pairing. But, on the dessert side, you have more flexibility and might try a small plate of dates and blue cheese or just go for a sumptuous chocolate mousse.