2017 Cent Visages, Touraine Côt, Jean-François Merieau

A couple of years ago I wrote six columns for the short-lived, highbrow, erotic magazine The Amorist. Its editor, Rowan Pelling, is a pal of mine and I relished the chance to write about wine and erotica. I think my articles turned out well, if a little light-weight in comparison with many of the other features in this sophisticated, arthouse journal. There is an undeniable link between well-chosen wine and sex – they are both sensual, pheremonal, indulgent, heady and memorable. In short, wine makes you feel particularly great when it tastes particularly delicious.

Cent Visages is, by a long way, the sexiest wine I have tasted in a very long while. Leaving the mildly titillating label aside (Georgia O’Keeffe would be proud), it is the perfume and flavour here which is nothing short of vinous Viagra. The earthy, liquorice and violet notes smell aphrodisiacal and the sleek palate makes for a virtually gluggable wine on account of its refreshing stance and lack of overt tannin. It has acidity in spades and this is the bitter snap on the finish that electrifies the senses.

The wine is made from côt, the Loire Valley synonym for malbec. Malbec loves warm climes and yet remarkably, in this cool, breezy region of northern France, Jean-François Mérieau has managed to transform it into a positively carnal creation.