The Story:

For those looking for value, this is the domaine for you. The wines range move up from average to very good; the prices move down from competitive to ridiculously low. This is proper, authentic, deeply drinkable domaine wine for less than the local Caves Co-operatives. If there is a restaurant anywhere in the UK looking for a house wine, please buy this Rouge; your customers will love you for it, as it’s delicious, and whatever you charge, you’ll make a ridiculous margin because he’s almost giving it away. The biggest bargain in the Côtes de Thongue.

This domaine has been in the Méjé family for five generations and with his colleague Philippe Pons , the proprietor is the mild mannered, unassuming but somewhat cerebral Jean-Michel Méjé.

Their land sits on the frontier between the Côtes de Thongue and the Faugeres Appellation, so a quarter of their production is AOP and the rest is Côtes de Thongue. If you’re making a crude simplification, the appellation wines are more serious; the Côtes de Thongue wines are more fun.

Of these, the whites aren’t bad (more of them later), but the headline is with the reds. There is a single varietal Merlot which has a terrific nose and enjoyable damson flavours (Price Band AA) and on another day, that would have been the bargain of the year, but then I tried his generic Rouge, a syrah-merlot-grenache blend(Price Band AA), which is even more crowd-pleasingly drinkable and at the time of tasting was only €3.20. I had to double check as any other domaine would be looking for something closer to twice the price. He makes 150,000 bottles a year, so there’s plenty to go round.

I wonder if he doesn’t charge more, because he sees the Faugeres wines as having more prestige (and his mainline Faugeres, for which he charges more – but not that much more – is a very good example of the appellation) but both the Côtes de Thongue reds are sensational value. (I only sampled one of his many Faugeres, as it’s outside the scope of this project.)

His equivalent generic white (‘Blanc de Blancs’) is similarly cheap but more of a curiosity: an ugni blanc-led blend, with pretty fierce acidity. His sauvignon (Price band AA) is more user-friendly, about as close as the Languedoc comes to New Zealand: quite full on aromas. He does two chardonnays, one unoaked (price band AA) and the other oaked (Price band A), both of which are decent. More interesting is the Muscat Moelleux (Price band B) i.e .a little bit sweet, and right out of fashion these days, but beautifully made, and it would make a lovely accompaniment to tarte tatin. His rosé isn’t bad either, on the more substantial end: for the barbecue rather than the beach. (Price band A)