“There’s nothing pretentious about this wine; it’s straightforward,
well-made, and boy, do I like the price.”

Click image to enlarge

I’ve been on the prowl for anything from Mary Taylor since I first tried three of her wines in February. I love her concept of importing “the kind of honest, authentic wines that the Europeans have been enjoying for centuries,” and those I’ve tasted have been much to my liking.

But, I’d only managed to track down one other specimen, the very nice 2020 Mary Taylor Pierre Vidal Costières de Nimes, until now. Then, yesterday, I stopped in the Westborn Market in Berkley specifically to find something new and interesting, and there this sat stacked and waiting for me. It’s the first Agenais I can recall seeing around here, and it’s dry rosé, so it was an easy choice for this taster.

2020 Mary Taylor Wines Christophe Avi Agenais Rosé, 20% Cab Franc, 80% Cab Sauvignon, 12.9% alc., $11.99: Watermelon pink in color, with a nose reminiscent of nothing so much as well water, mineral and a bit of, well, watermelon. The flavors echo and expand, being a bit earthy, and a little funkier than many of the models from Provence and Languedoc that I like so well. That’s not to say I don’t like this, because I really do. It’s medium bodied, with good depth, acids and intensity, and seems to convey a real “sense of place.” There’s nothing pretentious about this wine; it’s straightforward, well-made, and boy, do I like the price. In other words, I’ll be buying more of this tomorrow, and I’ll be opening it throughout the summer. Find this wine

Indication Géographique Protégée means a delineated area which designates a particular terroir style (weirdly hard to translate this). In this case, Agenais is the IGP, overlapping with Buzet, Cotes du Marmandais and Cotes de Duras and is in the Lot et Garonne Department (47) which refers to the 2 rivers that flow through this stunning landscape, speckled with Gothic and Romanesque architecture. The ancient capital city Agen is 84 miles from Bordeaux. Soils here range from sandy riverbed to limestone hills in the north.

Christophe Avi who also makes our Buzet wine is a farmer with a passion for biodynamic viticulture. In his 40s, he runs his ancestor’s farm that borders AOC Buzet and AOC Cotes de Bruhlois. Since 1992, after a degree in oenology and viticulture, Christophe has honed his skills cultivating what is called ‘the blood of the Garonne.’

Imported by Nashawtuc LLC, Sandy Hook, CT

Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo

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