2016 Domaine de Cebene Ex Arena IGP Pays d'Oc France 750 ml

We love the winemakers who take their talents from the Earth’s most prestigious and pricey regions and settle somewhere a little (or a lot) more affordable. Because when they bolt, the bargain hunters win big.

Crafted by a cult winemaker’s right-hand woman, the 92-point Domaine de Cébène Ex Arena Languedoc red is a Châteauneuf-du-Pape lover’s dream weeknight bottle. A bold and dark-fruited blend of Grenache and Mourvèdre raised in Rayas-like sandy soils in the sun-soaked Languedoc region, it’s got a perfect balance of muscle and mineral-laden moxie. All that and a long, and complex finish had us guessing at a price point up near $30—basically the cost of entry for this type of quality in the Rhône.

Rhône expert Jeb Dunnuck was equally impressed. His 92-point review is filled with quotable praise: “A wine that always seems to deliver incredible bang for the buck,” he begins about the captivating Cébène, it “over-delivers” with “complex, elegant, yet pure southern France gorgeousness.” Hear, hear.

At its shockingly low sticker price—just $19.00 per bottle—this crowd-pleaser is a surefire case-buy hit. Pop it for an end-of-season barbecue, but be sure to save some for when you need a dose of French sunshine on a cold winter’s night.

Brigitte Chevalier had a plum job in her native Bordeaux: She worked as the export manager for Jean-Luc Thunevin, the cult hero who invented the garagiste movement with his Right Bank collector’s item Château de Valandraud. But that wasn’t quite enough for the ambitious vintner, so she headed south to Faugères to start her own estate. 

Brigitte had been drawn to rugged landscape for years, where Mediterranean warmth crashes into the wild climate of the continent, and through meticulous research, she located a group of vineyards clustered around a ziggurat-shaped hill. In addition to this schist-dominated terroir, she sniffed out an incredible plot just twelve miles from the Mediterranean that features sandy soils an incredible 130 feet deep. Nowhere did there exist a better place to craft a Grenache in the mold of legendary sand-raised reds like Château Rayas and Domaine de la Janasse’s Cuvée Chaupin.

All of Brigitte’s vineyards are certified organic, and Ex Arena consists of 90% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre raised on 35-year-old vines. Upon harvest, the grapes are transported in small bins to her hillside cellar, where they’re fed through a window of the unobtrusive gravity-flow atelier. After being whole-cluster fermented for an added dose of spice and structure, the wine spends nine months aging in tank, which preserves the fruit character that’s hard-earned in the deep sands and bright sunshine of France’s Midi. 

We were blown away. Rhône shot-caller Jeb Dunnuck is starry-eyed. There’s nothing not to like about this luscious red—including that irresistible price.