2021 Domaine Cabirau Serge & Marie Maury Sec 750 ml

There’s a reason that the Domaine Cabirau Serge & Marie is such an incredible value: No one knows what makes a wine overdeliver better than the estate’s owner, Dan Kravitz.

For decades, Dan has imported some of France’s quality-to-price champions (alongside legendary names like Domaine Pégau in Châteauneuf), but took the plunge into winemaking when he bought land in the Roussillon in 2007. Domaine Cabirau, named for the parcel’s name on old cadaster maps of the area, was born.

Touring Dan’s vineyards, which lie deep in the South of France just 20 miles from the Spanish border, you sometimes feel as though you’re walking on another planet. The soil is sharp, obsidian-black schist, and it slides beneath your feet like shattered glass. Thick-trunked ancient vines thrust out of the ground like gnarled fingers. 

But despite the incredible natural resources of the area, the area has remained underpriced—largely because its prestige was tied up in Maury, an incredible dessert wine made from Grenache. But worldwide demand for sweet wines of all stripes had declined, and few consumers knew the terroirs of the Roussillon, so the price per acre was low, even for old vines.

It’s exactly the kind of situation that Dan would have looked for in his role as an importer. But the land spoke to him in a new and exciting way, so he took the plunge and bought a little over 20 acres. Now he’s custom-crushing his wines at the local progressive co-op. 

In recent years, local winemakers have adopted the new “Maury Sec” appellation, which was created to highlight dry wines from these historic terroirs. The results have been outstanding. And although Dan’s retired from his importer, Hand Picked Selections, he’s still heavily involved with Cabirau. 

Decades ago, plenty of Rhône wines delivered this kind of quality for this price—and he probably imported them. Those bottles are all $30 or more now, and it’s only a matter of time before Maury Sec gets discovered in the same way as Gigondas or Vacqueyras.