Wine of the week: Moulin de Gassac Guilhem Rouge 2021

This French red blend illustrates what weeknight dinner wine should be

Moulin de Gassac makes a red, white, and rose. All are especially impressive — $10 or so, varietally correct, and decent availability

The red, though, has always impressed me the most. That’s because it does something seldom seen in red wines at this price – it tastes like it’s supposed to taste.

Consider the 2021 vintage ($12, purchased, 13%): It’s a Rhone-style blend from southern France (50 percent syrah, 30 percent grenache, and 20 percent carignan), but it’s not too jammy or too soft despite all that syrah and grenache. Even more impressive: The three wines are made for export, and could have tried to appeal to the so-called American palate. Instead, they taste like wine.

That means the red has some spice, some berry fruit, and soft tannins — all in balance. It’s dry and not smoooth; rather, it’s the kind of wine for a summer barbecue (or a pot roast in the winter). In this, it’s weeknight dinner wine, a concept Europeans have understood for more than a century but which Americans have always struggled with.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2024 Turner award for cheap wine of the year.

Imported by Palomar Imports