Le Champaron Marselan 2008

Unless you're a watersport fanatic and like the white water rafting of its fast flowing rivers or a keen reader of Robert Louis Stevenson, you're unlikely to have heard of the Ardeche. It's a forgotten outback region of France, right next door to the Rhone and, like its neighbour, produces some deliciously rich and supple wines. Unlike next door, however, its wines are not well known, so provide particularly good value. Champaron is made from a rarely seen, native grape of the Rhone, Marselan, which combines the full, velvety fruit of Grenache with the structure and black spicy character of Cabernet. In the Rhone, it gains lovely ripeness and produces a tasty, fruity, rounded red.