Bronze Medal Marsanne at £3.47!

There is no doubt that I am lucky in normally being able to avoid the 3 bottles for £10 price range of wine. However, I was recently tempted to try a sub-four pound wine, based on consistently good reviews in the press and the fact that it won a bronze medal at the International Wine Challenge. The wine was from Asda and, on the day I bought it,it was priced at just £3.47! It was a Vins de Pays D’Oc Marsanne 2009. Various different wine writers such as Olly Smith, Jane McQuilty, Victoria Moore and Christine Austin had lavished praise on it with such phrases as…..Peach and white blossom……Fragrant touch…..Faintest hint of almond blossom and orange peel….Gentle appley spice……honeysuckle and apricot…..white pepper on the finish……soft tropical fruit scented…etc etc.



Peary Marsanne?



It is interesting how different tasters came up with fruits as different as apricot, apple, orange and tropical fruit! Unfortunately, I got something very akin to pear drops. Perhaps, not quite the banana flavour pear drops associated with Beaujolais Nouveau but certainly a candied pear flavour. Perhaps if I was a professional wine writer I would describe it as…..a hint of pear and marzipan!

For me this is a wine taste I am not particularly enjoying. I recently opened a bottle of the white Rhone wine Parallele 45 and it had exactly the same taste but more concentrated – which in my view made it worse rather than better.  Perhaps, it is just me but tastes that resemble sweet and fragrant in a dry wine just don't work unless you have it with exactly the right food.

However, at this price you might as well buy a bottle and come to your own opinion. It certainly makes a good food wine but perhaps not for drinking on its own. In the worse case you could cook with it! I certainly don’t know a better white wine at this price, but is it worth a bronze medal?  I scored it very creditable 12/20 but would prefer a glass of good Muscadet any time.