The Merry Drinker

The best value wines are the ones you have never heard of. This week I tried a well-known, expensive Barolo and wondered why I had bothered. I then drank an obscure Burgundy called Monthelie that cost half as much and gave three times the pleasure. And here is another wine that is cheaper still, even less well known, and a delight from start to finish.

Lirac is the oldest wine in the Côtes du Rhône region. In its heyday, around 400 years ago, it was prized throughout Europe. Louis XIV was fond of the stuff, and for a while its reputation stood higher than Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s. Disaster struck in the 1860s when the phylloxera aphid was brought in by accident from the United States. In just a few years this tiny pest destroyed most of France’s vineyards. Lirac was among the earliest casualties.

The phylloxera problem was finally solved by importing American vinestocks and grafting native vines upon them. Some French wines returned swiftly to their old glory; others, including Lirac, took rather longer. Lirac only became an official appellation in 1947, and it did not get noticeably better until recent years.

Château de Ségriès seems a typical example. The Domaine was taken over in the 1990s by Henri de Lanzac, and its quality has since risen markedly. Its Lirac is a blend of 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 5% Mourvèdre and 5% Carignan. It is of medium weight, with a fragrance of strawberry jam, flavours of brambles and berries, and no great length.

This is a great quaffing wine, the kind that slips down with much pleasure and minimal effort: before you know it the bottle is empty and you are thinking about a second. Luckily Château de Ségriès has yet to master the black arts of modern marketing. That is why you have probably never heard of their Lirac, and why it only costs $13 in the US, £8 in the UK.