On our last trip to France we bought some Moroccan wine in Intermarche and it cost about 3 Eur a bottle.
For such a low price I was impressed our bottle of blended non-vintage Sidi Zahia tasted really good and it was exceptional value for money. The wine was Appellation D'Origine Garantie from Beni M'tir which is in the hills above Fez.
Moroccan wine producers learnt a lot about wine making from the French who planted vines in the sandy soils in the hills of Northern Morocco. The sandy soils protected the vines from the Phylloxera insect pests that ravaged Europe in the late 19th Century.
Sidi Zahia is a light body red wine made from black grape varieties common to Southern France. The wine is fruity and well balanced for tannin, acidity and sugar content. It is rather reminiscent of wines from the Languedoc but it has a flavour of its own.
We drank the wine with Merguez sausages from France and it went well with the spice. The wine would go down well with any grilled meat.
I would gladly have paid 6 or 7 Eur for this wine. It competes well with standard French wine. It also competes more than favourably with English red wines costing 10 pounds or more. It just goes to show how a favourable climate is conducive to quality wine production. The English climate still has a long way to go before English red wine makers can compete with Mediterranean producers.
Three cheers for Intermarche and their wine expert club. At about 3 Eur a bottle why not buy some Moroccan wine when you are in France next. Drink it at a barbecue for what passes for an English summer, it is so cheap you have got nothing to lose.
