A monumental blend

2009 Domaine de Trvallon, IGP Les Alpilles, France (£39, or a MoneyWeek reader deal of £420 including VAT for a case of 12 bottles, delivered mainland UK, Yapp Brothers, 01747-860423, www.yapp.co.uk).

I have been a fan of Trvallon's wines since the very first days of my trade. I had the pleasure of interviewing Eloi Drrbach, the owner of the property situated in the wild, untamed slopes of the Alpilles, near Saint-Etienne-du-Grs, in the mid-1990s when I presented a weekly wine show on the BBC's London FM station of the time, GLR. This experience has never left me and the phone line that day was mobbed. He is a mesmerising person and his story is incredible.

I haven't the space on this page to recount it, so please look it up and you will realise that this is one of the most colourful and magnificent Domaines in the whole of France! A few weeks ago, the good people at Yapp invited me to a vertical tasting of this monumental wine, including some very rare old bottles dating back to 1982. This heroic blend of cabernet and syrah (a French version of my very own The Great Australian Red blend see my website) is gripping. Yapp has the 2005 vintage for £47.50 and the newly released 2009 for a special MoneyWeek price of £35. Buy it.

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Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.