I’ve recently become very interested in the wines from France’s Rhone region. There are a number of famous appellations from this region – Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Hermitage, Cote-Rotie, and the list goes on – but wines from the most notable of these tend to fall into a price bracket that turns them into special occasion wines. Not the weekday bottles that are nice to have around, and really not even the Friday or Saturday night “yay, we made it through the weekend!” bottles.

So in lieu of those more famous appellations, we’ve been focusing our attention on the real value wines from the Rhone – the Cotes-du-Rhone, Cotes-du-Ventoux, Minervois, Vin de Pays. That’s the nice thing about the Rhone region, there are loads of smaller, lesser-regarded appellations that produce great wine. There are loads of these available today, and while they may be of varying quality, if you can find a shop whose judgement you trust, then you know you can try most any of their Rhones with confidence.

This was the case when we bought this bottle at South End Formaggio. This small, very small, cheese, wine, and other delectable knick-knacky-type-foods shop in Boston’s South End is one of my favorite places to buy wine. They stock bottles ranging from $8 to $100, generally focus on smaller, more traditional or artisanal style producers, and we’ve never had a bottle from there that has disappointed us. And so they’re the perfect wine shop, one where you can buy a couple of wines right between $10-$20 and expect them to be good and interesting.

This particular bottling is a Vin de Pays from Domaine La Guintrandy, a small Rhone producer located in the southern Rhone that has been a family-owned estate since 1850. Today it is run by Marie-Claude and Olivier Cuilleras and produces a range of Cotes-du-Rhone appellation wines, the most prestigious of which bear the “Cotes-du-Rhone Village Visan” appellation.

This bottling is their Vin de Pays de Comté de Grignan, a red wine made from grapes grown on vines residing in the commune of Tulette. It is made up of 50% Syrah and 50% Grenache, and all of the grapes are harvested by hand. After harvest the grapes are left to macerate with the skins for 8 days before being pressed. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks until being bottled, without filtration.

The wine pours a very light, translucent, purply red. The nose is fresh and vibrant, with notes of racy black cherries, cocoa powder, and apple skins. The palate is lightly textured with a buoyant mouthfeel. Flavors of Macintosh apples, tart cherries, stone fruit, and an earthy, flinty minerality are well-balanced, and enjoyably refreshing and intriguing. The finish is sweeter than the palate, with sugared black cherries and a hint of raspberries.

This was a $10 bottle, and was well worth it. I really love light, refreshing, complex red wines, and this fit the bill. Not super complex, but interesting and very enjoyable. I only wish they’d had more bottles, I would’ve run right out to pick up a couple more to have on hand.