La Ficelle 2022 SAINT-POURCAIN ROUGE

ABOUT THE WINERY:

Officially the Union des Vignerons de Saint-Pourcain, this is an historic wine cooperative based in the remote Auvergne region in pretty much the dead centre of France, on the banks of the Allier river, a tributary to the mighty Loire. Thirty years ago before the region was even AOC the co-operative of Saint Pourcain ‘borrowed’ the idea from Mouton Rothschild of launching this wine with a new label each year. In keeping with the approachable nature of this wine it’s always a cartoonist invited to paint the label (hand selected by the previous years cartoonist!) La Ficelle means ‘the string’. Story goes that the barkeep would use a knotted string to dip into a patrons flagon to see how much wine they had enjoyed before the bill. You’d be forgiven if you couldn’t put your finger on the map of France and point out Saint Pourçain. It sits south of Loire and west of Macon.