La Ficelle de Saint-Pourçain 2018

Located not far from Vichy, to the west of Beaujolais, Saint-Pourçain is a long way upstream along the Loire. This little-known AOC barely even gets a mention in discussions of French wine yet La Ficelle is its “most famous” wine, a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir made by a cooperative spread over 19 villages. With its raspberry, redcurrant, blackberry, violet and black pepper flavours, it’s a delight lightly chilled and served at picnics or as an aperitif. The humorous bottle design changes every year; 2018’s was created by Deligne – a cartoonist with a wicked sense of humour who has worked for many French publications – and depicts an artist reimagining a still life of grapes as a bottle of red, in many ways exactly as the Vignerons de Saint-Pourçain have.

The name La Ficelle comes from a legend dating back to 1487. A local tavern owner served his wine in clay or pewter jugs and in the smoky pub it was difficult to determine how much his regulars had consumed and therefore should be charged. His solution was to dip a knotted piece of twine into the wine to measure how many sips had been taken, hence the name of this wine, which means the string of Saint-Pourçain.