Le Carignan, 2021

A southern French red at 12%, light on its feet. Fresh and lifted, from a grape the region usually uses for heft.

Catherine Bernard spent twenty years as a journalist before buying vines near Montpellier, and this is her take on Carignan, a grape the south of France mostly used for colour and muscle. Old vines give it some depth. A splash of pale, gently pressed juice keeps it fresh and clean, with bright red fruit like cherry and cranberry, and it sits at just 12%.