Ugni Says Shine Your Light on the World

Last October, M. Quaff and I had the great good taste to rent a flat overlooking the habour in the lovely village of Cassis, just a few miles east of Marseille. A fishing village in the same way that East Hampton is a potato-farming town, it is nonetheless utterly charming and positioned in the most fortunate way among small limestone fjords called calanques, the hike to which is best rewarded with a luscious swim and a grand picnic. If the picnic was composed from the best offerings of the Wednesday morning market under the plane trees and includes some Corsican sausage and a bottle of wine from one of the most idiosyncratic caves I've ever encountered, it is holiday the way god intended. Did I mention that the hills rise up from town, terraced with vines, and that Cassis produces one of Provence's loveliest rosés? Which we will get to shortly. Less well regarded are the reds and whites, although if you ask at the Chai Cassidain, you will be recommened the Clos Ste. Magdelaine, and rightly so. The same question about rosé brings forth a rhapsody on the rosés of nearby Bandol, and then the mention of the local Domaine Du Bagnol. A long afternoon walk brought us to that very Chateau, the first and to date only winery we have visited in Europe, just as their tasting room was closing. Overcoming my accute embarassment, we tasted and admired — but sadly all the 2004 rosé had already been sold away! A bottle of white, then, in hand, we descended to town and picked up a rosé there. Today I am opening the white, it being a suitably beautiful Friday afternoon and me missing France. Holiday France that is. What an interesting colour this wine is — a greengold yellow. Alas if it were only so distinctive in taste! A sharpish tropical bouquet gives way to a short, tangy flavour, followed by that little burn you get from table wine at the back of the throat. There's nothing wrong with it, we put gallons away with the local seafood, it's perfectly refreshing. I'd serve it in a ceramic pitcher at a light summer luncheon and be happy. This bottle cost me about 11 euros at the local Casino (think minisupermarket). The composition is 15% Ugni Blanc, that workhorse of white French table wine, 35% Clairette and 50% Marsanne. Domaine du Bagnol is now in the hands of Jean-Louis Genovesi, the lucky git. That and the barely detectable sense of ocean breeze adds at least seven euros.