Domaine de l'Arjolle in Pouzolles, North of Béziers, is one of the most well known and respected vineyards in the neighborhood. My wife and I stopped by at New Year's Eve and picked up a few bottles of reds, whites, rosés, and a Vin de Liqeur from their extensive and interesting line of wines. We also got a bubbly for the evening. We were given a generous and informative tasting of many of their wines by Louis-Marie Teisserenc, who talked enthusiastically about their work with the terroir, grapes, vinification, barrel ageing and more. We had a really nice chat and went back home feeling enriched and happy.

One of the reds we brought back home was the Zinfandel 2008. Zinfandel is of course mostly associated with California, but it's the same grape that's called Primitivo in the South of Italy. In California the grape is 3rd in quantity after Chardonnay and Cabernet, but most of it is turned into a semi-sweet rosé for the domestic market. Some red Zins hit the European market, for instance some good, fruity stuff from the big producer Ravenswood. But beware of over-oaked crap too.

The Zinfandel from l'Arjolle turned out to be in neither an American nor Italian style, but a distinctly French version. It performs a lively but elegant dance in the nose and mouth, with a warm, complex harmony of all kinds of dark berries, some prune and a dash of violet and rosé pepper.  All this is wrapped in a  tasty aroma of leather.
With the intense aromas and high acidity, and dusty but not pronounced tannins, this is a wine to be enjoyed with many Mediterannean style meals, sausages, hard cheeses... A delicious and very useful wine with lots of character!