Stop buying cheap Bordeaux — the best value wines are from this French region

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If you’re still drinking £6 Bordeaux then this is your intervention.

You shouldn’t be buying it (unless I recommended it). You should be getting wines from the Languedoc in southwestern France instead – and I’m not being paid by anyone to say that.

You know what, I’m probably partly to blame for the whole cheap Bordeaux buying thing. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ll know that I’ve recommended the odd Bordeaux that’s languishing seductively around the £6 mark. But those are the unusual exceptions, you can’t be sipping just any old Bordeaux.

Why? Because it’s a heck of a complex region to know your way around if you’re not looking to waste money, and quality is famously patchy at the lower end. If you’re only spending six or seven quid on a bottle of Claret, you’ll find it either delivers a wow or a woefully mediocre moment, there’s really not much in between.

In contrast, the Languedoc region of southwestern France positively thrives at the sub-£10 mark. What used to be France’s lawless wild west is now like Shoreditch; trendy and gentrified without the price tag of West London (can you tell I’m moving house next year and everything is about Rightmove?)

Tucked along France’s Mediterranean coast, from Nîmes to the Spanish border, this enormous, often-overlooked, region is quietly producing some of the most flavour-packed wines in Europe. There’s no Premier Cru this or Grand Cru that, it doesn’t have Bordeaux’s chateau-clout or Provence’s Instagram appeal. It’s just bang-for-buck-brilliance in a bottle. Not every bottle is brilliant but let’s not nitpick.

So, how does it get away with such low prices then? Well, the Languedoc doesn’t have the market pricing pressure of so many of the more famous regions in Europe. It’s under the radar so there’s less hype, fewer middlemen and plenty of smaller, independent producers doing their own thing. Land is cheaper there (80-times less pricey than Bordeaux) and did I mention it’s huge? It’s France’s largest wine producing region pumping out a third of its wine production. To put it into perspective, that’s more that the entire production of Australia.

But, chances are you’ve just walked by it in the wine aisle. You see, this region is often snubbed by wine drinkers who either genuinely don’t know it’s there, or that are wine snobs looking for flashier names.

Well, just wait until you find out that it’s good quality wine made by maverick winemakers from exciting grapes. You won’t find many fancy names, bloated marketing budgets or bottles with dusty heritage, because that’s not the vibe.

Here are some great wines from the region that should be on your shopping list…

Extra Special Languedoc Blanc, £7.97, Asda

A vibrating white with Mirabelle plum and peach notes and a long-drawn-out key lime pie-like finish. Vibrating sounds bizarre, but hear me out. It has a lively energy that makes you feel like you’ve just been plugged into the mains, in a good way. I recently tasted it at the Asda press tasting and it was one of the standouts of their white wine selection.

Taste the Difference Jurançon Sec, £9.25 (£8.25 with Nectar), Sainsbury’s

Here’s something a little different for you. And when I say ‘a little’, I actually mean ‘very’. Jurançon is a funky little subregion of the Languedoc, parked at the foothills of the Pyrenees. Made from two regional grapes, Gros and Petit Manseng, this dry white delivers sherbety flavours of waxed lemon zest and a riveting dab of earthiness. Told you it was unique. This is perfection if you’re understandably bored stiff of Sauvignon Blanc.  

Orange Groove, £9.50, Co-op

Brand new to the range comes this whirling dervish of a bottle. It’s an orange wine, so a white wine left on the grape skins to soak up layers of flavour and texture. Hence the name. It’s made from the some of the most expressive grapes in existence, including Viognier, Muscat and Gewurztraminer, so yes, it’s attention-grabbing in style. Think blossomy, orangey, grapey and spicy.

Taste the Difference Fronton Negrette Rosé, £8.50, Sainsbury’s

This actually has a little more zhuzh than your average Provence pink. Negrette is a grape famous for its extravagant flavours of berries, violets and red liquorice. Hence, this one is deeper in colour with flavours of strawberry sherbet and red liquorice. Grown around the town of Toulouse in the Haut Garonne, Negrette makes inky red wines and deep coloured rosés like this one. You’ll be a superfan in no time.

La Petite Laurette Rosé, £8.85, Co-op

I discovered this beauty at the recent Co-op wine tasting. Provence, who? The Languedoc to the southwest is where it’s at for rosé nowadays, so much so that Bon Jovi even has his own brand from the region, called Hampton Water. I digress. With so much candied strawberry flavours on offer, this should really be priced over a tenner.

Pierre Jaurant Merlot, £5.99, Aldi

For the price, this soft and pillowy Merlot knocks it out of the park. You can generally rely on good old Merlot as a weekday workhorse, but you’d usually have to spend a bit more to get something that’s not undrinkable. Aldi’s delivers smooth and juicy hedgerow fruit by the punnet-load, and dishes out change for a tenner while it’s doing so.

Irresistible Languedoc-Montpeyroux, £9.85, Co-op

If you like reds from the Rhône Valley, this one is firmly up your alley. It’s made from the same grapes and has a similar spiced plum flavour profile. Top tip, a bottle with ‘Montpeyroux’ on the label indicates a higher quality level within the wider Languedoc region. It’s seen as one of the most promising sub-appellations, mostly because of its sun-soaked, south-facing slopes.

Morrisons The Best Fitou, £8.50 (launches on 12th May)

Fitou is the oldest appellation in the Languedoc, known in the past for producing reds that were the wine equivalent of a drunk French farmer smoking a filterless Gitane. There’s nothing rustic and alcohol-heavy about their wines anymore though, this region has had a glow up and now produces elegant and complex wines like this damson and chocolate-loaded red.

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