One of the perks of writing about wine are trade tastings, where producers and importers offer samples of their various wines. At a recent Dallas trade tasting, two of my favorite Gascon wines were in attendance — Domaine Duffour and Domaine du Tariquet.
Getting to taste them reminded me how much I appreciate Gascon wine, which is cheap, made with odd grapes, and just the thing to keep in the refrigerator for wine emergencies. So I did a quick round of the stores to find some more, and came up with the Artigaux ($10, purchased, available at Whole Foods).
It’s made with the Gascon grapes, ugni blanc and colombard, and it’s not quite the wine that the Duffour or the Tariquet are. The Artiguaux is more simple, with a touch too much white grapey-ness. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, since the wine is fresh with low alcohol (11 1/2 percent) and almost enough acid to balance the fruit.
This is 105-degree wine, and wouldn’t be bad at any other time in the summer — or as a refrigerator emergency wine for a glass after work or something to drink with Chinese takeout.
