Baron d'Arignac Cabernet Sauvignon (2019 Vintage)

 Price - £23.95 (Retails for around £9)

Country of origin - France

Score - 7/10


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From the start this bottle of wine was different to most others I've tried; when eating out, normally I refrain from drinking wine, instead opting for something like cider or a soft drink. However, this occasion felt far too fancy for a Thatchers Gold or a diet coke. Yesterday evening was the Exeter University Archaeology and Forensic Society’s summer ball, an opportunity for students to meet up, have a nice meal, and go clubbing after our exam season had finished. Now whilst this was a lovely evening, I did have one issue with the summer ball, that being the day it was held. The Archaeology department is currently running the domestic archaeology fieldschool, a required section of our degree program, which involves four weeks of work on an archaeological excavation. Now, I don’t want to complain about the third-year students who organised the ball, but they did know when the fieldschool was running, the details were included in the weekly department email and the society committee was told the dates by members. So, what they did was book the restaurant for 6pm, despite knowing that the fieldschool does not finish until 5:30pm and is held 6 miles away, along narrow country roads. Its needless to say that we were late.

As previously stated, I wouldn’t normally buy wine at a restaurant, but on this occasion I decided to be fancy. The bottle of Baron d’Arignac Cabernet Sauvignon was selected purely because my friend, a Frenchman who I was sharing the bottle with, insisted that we drink French wine. I had never had a Cabernet Sauvignon before, but this was a good introduction. The wine was extremely packed with flavour, with strong fruit and spice notes. After a long day of outdoor work, it was an excellent accompaniment to the meal. Despite the bottle recommending a pairing of "meat", it paired well with my main course, a wonderful “Hanging Halloumi Kebab”. What surprised me more though was how it complemented my desert, a lemon tart with raspberry sorbet: the rich fruitiness of the wine acting with the tangy lemon and the sharp raspberry to create an amazing triangle of flavours to alternate through. I don’t know if it was because I was tired, but half a bottle of this wine, drunk slowly over the course of about two hours managed to make me more drunk that I would expect that volume of wine would. When I woke up this morning for another day of fieldwalking and archaeological survey, I had a slight hangover.

Now it is time for me to be a bit of a wine nerd; I’ll explain why the wine paired well with the food I ate. The Cabernet Sauvignon grape is one of the most commonly grown varieties of grape in the world, being grown in every major wine-growing country in a variety of climates. The grapes have a very high tannin content; tannins being the compounds in wine that create the drying sensation in the mouth and leave a somewhat bitter aftertaste. Now unbeknownst to my French friend, the food that I had ordered would fit excellently with types of food recommended to pair with the wine he had insisted we buy. Fatty or protein rich foods, such as my Halloumi kebab, work well to neutralise the high tannin content of the wine that create the subtle bitter aftertaste, allowing the fruitier tasting notes to be more present in the mouth. Furthermore, methods of cooking such as charring and grilling can also create foods that neutralise tannins due the strong flavour they bring to a meal. The mixed peppers and red onion that accompanied the halloumi on my kebab were cooked until they had some char, further allowing this tannin neutralisation to occur in my mouth. I did notice the change in flavour profile the wine had after I started eating my main course, it became richer and fruitier, and whist I was not drinking the wine particularly quickly beforehand, I did have to slow my intake to prevent it from becoming “too much”. When it came to my desert, it was admittedly not the typical Cabernet Sauvignon pairing, that tends to be bitter chocolate dishes as the bitter flavour helps mask the bitter tannins. However, dark fruits and strong berry flavours, such as the raspberry sorbet, complement the blackcurrant and black cherry notes from the wine, adding another layer to a desert already rich in flavour.

I must admit before I looked up the retail price of this wine before I started writing this I expected it to be higher. Learning that what I paid for half a bottle could have bought me at least one whole bottle was, to put it nicely, not the most fun. Despite knowing there would be a markup on the bottles of wine, I didn’t expect it to be nearly three times the retail price. Do I regret spending this much money on the wine? Not in the slightest, I wasn’t going out clubbing after, I had to be up at 7am to walk around a field, so why not treat myself? I probably spent as much on that wine as the people who went clubbing paid for their tickets and drinks. It was such an excellent addition to the meal; but half a bottle was definitely enough. I don’t mean in terms of alcohol, and whilst I was getting a bit tipsy, it was a standard strength for a red wine. Instead, like a lot of rich foods, there is only a limited amount you can consume before it becomes too much; the tannic mouthfeel after drinking it was still strong despite the food acting to neutralise it. It wasn't overpowering, but it at times it was quite close. It’s definitely a wine to sip slowly with food. I would buy this wine again, but probably from a shop rather than a restaurant.



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