The formerly unfashionable carignan grape is having a moment

Domaine Mandeville Carignan, IGP Pays d’Oc, 2024 France (£9, Marks & Spencer)

It’s not about to replace malbec, shiraz or merlot as a red grape variety that people will order by name in a bar, but all the same I’ve noticed something of a trend for wines made from the hitherto rather unfashionable carignan in recent times, and I’m all for it at this time of year, when carignan’s dark juicy intensity is very much in tune with the general mood and food. Much of the world’s carignan can be found in southern France where, as is the way down there, most of it is used in blends with other varieties. But it is increasingly used to make excellent value wintry reds such as the Domaine Mandeville I wrote about in my Languedoc-Roussillon roundup last month, or an old Majestic favourite, Alain Grignon Vieilles Vignes 2024 (£9.75, Majestic).

Alain Grignon Grande Réserve Carignan, IGP Pays d’Oc, France 2024 (£16, Majestic)

The same well-run big group – LGI – that makes the Alain Grignon Vieilles Vignes is also responsible for another carignan that was one of the highlights of Majestic’s latest range tasting at Lord’s in October. The Grande Réserve is made from grapes from one of the group’s best properties, Château Grand Moulin in the Corbières, and adds several layers of vivid wild berry succulence and black olive intensity into its robust but silky frame. Older vines are responsible for many of the better carignans. Fortunately, there are plots of old carignan all over the world, including the Bekaa Valley, the home of many Lebanon’s finest producers, including Domaine des Tourelles, whose 2021 Carignan (£16.95, ND John), with its mulberry and herbes de Provence, bristles with intensity.

Undurraga Cauquenes Estate Carignan, Maule, Chile 2022 (£10.95, The Wine Society)

The main reason why carignan was so widely planted in warm climates all over the world is that it is an exceptionally high-yielding variety. As global drinking trends changed to enjoying better wine less often over the past half-century, carignan was often ripped up. But the vines that remained have proved to be a goldmine in places such as Chile’s Maule Valley, responsible for both the keenly bright, almost brisk bottling from Undurraga, with its lipsmacking raspberry and blackcurrant fruit-pastille quality, and the wonderful Morande Adventure Vigno Carignan 2020 (£21.50, Hic!), which is fragrant with leafy aromatic herbs and is full of wild, dark cherries and blackberries. Look out, too, for Miguel Merino Rioja La Quinta Mazuelo 2022 (£42, Davy’s Wine) an exceptionally refined, evocative, not to say rare solo example from Rioja.