This little blurb comes straight from the table of a tiny restaurant in the middle of nowhere; well, somewhere in the Pyrenees. What else could I order with this typical local meal? I had to go with a locally produced wine, and this 1999 Madiran Vignes Vieilles was just the thing.

The robe on the wine is dark and present. I expect a wine with body, not a Beaujolais… more like a good Bourgogne. The nose has a woody and spicy character that goes extremely well with the fruit. It was certainly corpulent and tannic but yet ready to drink; though it can surely sit still a few years.

Rich plums come to mind on the palate. Ripe red fruit is present as well and a woody undertone that made me dream of the cigar I would have right after dinner; and may I add that for the first time I finished an excellent French dinner and wine with an equally worthy French cigar. Concerning the cigar, though, that’s another story entirely.