Wine of the week: a thrilling, blackberry-soaked elixir

2017 Chteau Maris, Savoir Vieillir, Minervois, Languedoc, France £16.99, Waitrose.com.

Robert Eden, vintner and co-owner of Chateau Maris, has lived in France since 1994 after travelling in Australia, Italy, Burgundy, Spain and California, where he worked at a collection of stellar wineries. Since 1997, he has pioneered organic and biodynamic viticulture. As a result his property features a carbon-neutral, hemp-bricked winery that passively consumes carbon dioxide. Savoir Vieillir translates as "understanding how to age".

My featured wine has no added sulphur (sans souffre ajout) and is a red designed by Robert and his collaborator Benjamin Darnault. It is made from mainly syrah grapes with a touch of grenache and it comes from a south-facing vineyard, situated at 300m above sea level, called Les Panels. The soil is a mix of clay, limestone and sandstone, and this plot sits within the hallowed Minervois Cru La Livinire.

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I am not one for falling for trendy "bio" wines and most no- or low-sulphur bottles that appear on my tasting table look lacklustre and often faulty, but this wine is something else. Inky black in colour, with a velvety texture and sensational perfume, this is a thrilling, sooty, plum and blackberry-soaked elixir and it is staggeringly impressive. Only 7,200 bottles were made exclusively for Waitrose. Once customers taste this wine I am certain there will be a stampede to restock, so don't delay.

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