You may remember my post about the book, The Red Wine Diet, back in November. Author and cardiologist Dr. Roger Corder clarifies the relation between red wine, what you eat and heart health in a revealing and memorable way.

He debunks a number of accepted platitudes on these subjects, and makes a bold argument that a previously little known group of compounds, procyanidins, is the key found in certain foods and in certain types of red wine that can open the lock to better cardio health and potentially longer life. But are these healthy wines good for your palate, too?
I had joined Corder with a group of writers for lunch at The Hess Collection Winery and was surprised at how unpretentious and uncommercial he seemed for someone promoting a book with a hard-sell title like The Red Wine Diet. I came away believing that Corder is a sincere, self-effacing doctor and academic who is doing what he believes in.

One of the key points in his book regarding wine is that his studies of regional populations around the world show a strong correlation in some places between the average life expectancy of the locals and what they eat and drink. If I recall correctly, the absolutely strongest correlation with longevity and wine was in the southwest of France, in the region known as Gers or Gascony. Here, winemaking is an old tradition, and many of the red wines are made with a blend dominated by the Tannat grape.

Last night I blind-tasted samples of three Gers region wines imported to the US, and threw in another wine — Argentine — that probably has among the highest levels of procyanidins of any wines on earth, a Malbec grown at 8,000 feet or more above sea level, or about 2,000 feet higher than any point in the Eastern U.S. I learned last spring while moderating a panel discussion in Lake County, Calif., about high-altitude vineyards that these locations encourage thick skins on the grapes, which in turn deliver lots of color, tannin, flavor and other stuff including Corder’s procyanidins to the wine.

I tried three Gers wines made with 70-80 percent Tannat grapes, and the Argentine wine, Colome, made from 85 percent Malbec plus small portions of Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon. All were very substantial in mouth-puckering tannins, which Tannat is known for, and stained my teeth almost immediately. Here’s how they tasted.

The youngest of the French wines was from the Vignerons du Madiran, a $15 Madiran appellation red called “1907.” This was lively with good backbone and lean fruit flavors. Medium red in color, with aromas of plum and cherry and light herb accents. Tasted dry, firm-textured, moderately tannic, with tangy raspberry and cranberry. A good, dry, hearty but fairly simple wine.

Another Madiran called Plenitude (2002, $35) comes from the Producteurs Plaimont in one of the coolest bottles I’ve seen. It had a red wax capsule on top and a rustic pewter-like label attached to the bottle that made it look almost medieval. The deep, dark color and effusive rasberry and grape aromas signaled a wine with personality, and the concentrated rasberry and dark chocolate flavors delivered it. It was quite dry, firmly tannic, a bit leaner on the palate than the aromas suggest.

A wine with a traditional Bordeaux style label, Chateau de Sabazan Cotes de Saint Mont 2003 ($30) had a more familiar oak-accented flavor profile, than the three others. This deep-colored red had an enticing, spicy aroma of mint, cedar and nutmeg, followed by rich and juicy cherry and blackberry flavors. It was definitely firm and tannic, but still smooth enough to make the flavors linger on the finish.

The Argentine ringer in the flight, Bodega Colome Malbec Valle Calchaqui Salta Estate 2005 ($25), started out like wild Mr. Hyde and then morphed into a more sophisticated Dr. Jekyll with some time in the glass. At first it smelled earthy and meaty in the extreme, like volatile acidity, but that impression blew off and it had great, deep fruit flavors, softly gripping texture and lingering finish. It ended up being the wine I went back to the most. My favorite of the quartet.

Who else has tried Tannat wines lately that they’d like to comment on?

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