Petit Verdot ‘Pure’ from Bruno Andreu is a special bottling of the increasingly rare Petit Verdot grape variety from Bordeaux. It excels here in the south of France where the warm weather helps produce a big, inky, dark wine with lush black fruit flavours, damson, plum and ripe blackberry. The oak ageing gives adds sweet spice notes, coffee and liquorice and a long complex finish.
The Languedoc region in the south of France has had to work hard to rebrand itself over the past twenty years. The speed at which New World countries have created brands out of grape varieties and bigger companies have dominated shelf space caught European winemakers out. Languedoc wine looked very old fashioned, very quickly. Luckily, we know Bruno Andreu, and Bruno understands how to make delicious wines that blend tradition with modernity. Bruno comes from a family of wine makers and knows how things were, but rather than stick to what doesn’t work anymore, Bruno set about creating clean, modern, forward-thinking wines that still retain a little French, rustic charm. They are a great advert for modern Languedoc wines with a sense of artisan production, care and terroir that is refreshing for such humble wines. It is always fun to taste the new vintages with Bruno, who constantly amazes us with the quality of the Tendem and Elixir wines and surprises us each year with beautiful one-offs from grape varieties like Petit Verdot and Petite Syrah.
