Clos del Rey Le Sabina Rouge 2023, Maury Sec, Roussillon

Le Sabina Rouge comes from Clos del Rey, the Montagné family estate in the village of Maury, in the foothills of the Pyrenees not far from the Mediterranean. Maury is best known for its sweet, fortified reds, but Clos del Rey makes only dry wines, and Le Sabina is bottled under the Maury Sec appellation. It is a blend of Grenache, Carignan (known locally as Samsó) and Syrah, grown on old bush vines on high, stony hillsides above the village, surrounded by wild garrigue of thyme, rosemary and cistus. In the cellar the family takes a low-intervention approach, letting the concentrated fruit from these old vines speak for itself.

In the glass it is a deep ruby red. The nose is intense, with red and black fruit, blackberry, garrigue herbs and Mediterranean spice. The palate is rich, full and juicy, dense and concentrated yet lively, with notes of liquorice and scorched earth, round, silky tannins and a long, stony, fruity finish.

Serve at around 16–18°C, decanting it for an hour if opened young. It is superb with red meat, roast lamb, beef fillet, veal shank, suckling pig, barbecues and hearty stews. Le Sabina is approachable now and will continue to develop in bottle over the next several years.

Clos del Rey is a family estate in Maury, a small village in Roussillon in the foothills of the Pyrenees, close to the Mediterranean. It was created in 2001 by Jacques Montagné, who, as the market for Maury’s traditional fortified wines declined, began buying the best old parcels of Grenache and Carignan he could find so that the vines would have a future. His son Julien, a trained oenologist, joined him in 2007 and now makes the wines. The vineyards lie at around 300 metres, among the highest in the area, in a protected landscape of garrigue, and some of the bush-trained vines are over a century old. Clos del Rey makes only dry wines, with minimal intervention in the cellar, and Decanter’s Andrew Jefford has praised its L’Aragone as the greatest Carignan he has tasted.