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MADIRANContinued…DOMAINE BERTHOUMIEU, DIDIER BARRE, MadiranThere are several fine growers in Madiran at the moment and Didier Barré ranks in the first echelon. These wines areperfect expressions of the notion of terroir – they are true to themselves, uncompromising and will develop in theirown time. He even has a few rows of gnarled and knobbly 100 year old + Tannat vines. The local dialect uses theword Pacherenc – derived from paishet for “posts in a row.” This refers to the modern method of planting vineyardsin regular rows, using a post to support each vine. Vic Bilh is the name for the local hills that are part the Pyreneesfoothills, along the Adour River south of Armagnac. The Pacherenc sec (made from a blend of Gros Manseng, Courbu& Petit Manseng) gets better every year, punchy with acidity and bags of orchard fruit flavour. This is from old vines(up to 50 years old) half fermented in tank and half in new oak. Batonnage is for 8 months. This is a big, generouswine: quite golden with a nose of orchard fruits burnished by the sun, conjuring half misty-half sunny early autumnafternoons. The wine slides around the tongue and fills the mouth with pear william and yellow plum flavours, gingerand angelica (tastes as if there is quite a lot of lees contact) and is rounded off by a lambent vanillin texture. You’dwant food – grilled salmon with fennel or some juicy scallops perhaps – because it has whopping weight, but it’s anexcellent wine and just the thing if you’re wired for weird. The Madiran Haute Tradition is a pugnacious vin deterroir, a rustic tangle of humus and farmyard aromas, flavours of dark cherries, figs and pepper, a blend of Tannat,Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinenc (Fer Servadou), whilst the award-garnering Charles de Batz is oak-aged, made from90+% Tannat, purple-black in colour and could probably age forever, a veritable vin de garde. Such is the fruitquality, however, that it will be drinking beautifully soon. The wine is named after Charles de Batz Castelmored’Artagnan, a French soldier under Louis XIV, and inspiration for Dumas. It certainly inspires us.This Batz is made for your belfry. There lurks a Tannat-ridden beast in the Madiran mould blacker than a blacksteer’s tuckash on a moonless prairie night. And if that sentence makes any sense at all, you’re probably half waythrough a bottle of “Charles de Batz”. En garde indeed.The Pacherenc Symphonie d’Automne is an evocative meditation on autumn with meltingly aromatic pears in cloverhoney. This delight comes from a blend of Petit Manseng (90%) and Petit Courbu (10%). The vintage is harvestedentirely by hand with three “tris” from early November to December in order to intensify those rapturous aromas ofwild honey and confit fruits.Tanatis is the result of the late, late Tannat show. Raisined grapes, bulging with sugar, are picked in November and“muted” to give this soi-disant vin de liqueur, a Gascon take on Banyuls or Port, aromas of bitter-sweet cherries andprunes. Indeed the very fine estate of Quinta de la Rosa was the inspiration for this extraordinary wine. Hmm – fromd’Artagnan to Portos (lousy pun). The velvet, chocolate texture in the mouth is offset by an echo of tannin – this winewould go beautifully with cheese.2010 PACHERENC DU VIC-BILH SEC VIEILLES VIGNES W2009 MADIRAN HAUTE TRADITION R2009 MADIRAN “CUVEE CHARLES DE BATZ” R2009 MADIRAN “CUVEE CHARLES DE BATZ” – ½ bottle R2009 MADIRAN “CUVEE CHARLES DE BATZ” – magnum R2011 PACHERENC DU VIC– BILH DOUX, SYMPHONIE D’AUTOMNE – 50 cl Sw2009 TANATIS – 50 cl Sw- 40 -