What is Carignan?

Carignan's story is one of wine's great comebacks. For decades it was the most planted grape in France — over 150,000 hectares churning out cheap table wine in the Languedoc. Mass uprooting programmes culled the vineyards, but the vines that survived were often the oldest and best-sited. Today, those gnarled 80-120 year old bushvines produce some of the Mediterranean's most exciting and affordable red wines.

In the Languedoc, old-vine Carignan is the secret weapon of appellations like Corbières, Fitou, and Faugères. The grape's naturally high acidity and firm tannins, once seen as flaws, are now valued for the structure and ageing potential they bring to blends. Carbonic maceration (the technique made famous in Beaujolais) is often used to soften Carignan's tannic grip while preserving its dark, brooding fruit.

Spain's Priorat combines old Cariñena (as it's called there) with Garnacha on stunning slate hillsides, producing some of the country's most concentrated and mineral reds. In Sardinia, Carignano del Sulcis comes from sandy soils near the coast — vines that survived phylloxera because the pest can't thrive in sand.

For wine lovers on a budget, old-vine Carignan from the Languedoc is one of the best values in wine. You get genuine complexity, terroir expression, and age-worthy structure at a fraction of what comparable wines from more famous regions would cost.

Pair it with bold Mediterranean food: grilled meats, cassoulet, game stews, spicy sausages, and aged cheeses.