The French wine appellation of Madiran suddenly grabbed attention a few years ago when London-based scientist Roger Corder recommended its wines as the most heart-healthy in the world. Luckily, it turns out they're also worth drinking for the taste. Take this generous, tartly fruity 2007 '1907' Madiran that I drank with some hearty spare ribs a couple of nights ago. Its dark black fruit flavors and deep iron tang tell you you're tasting something quite different and give the wine a surprisingly complex taste for its $14 price tag. There's a hint of licorice and other minerals, too.

The '1907,' named for the year the appellation was first defined, is both powerful and fresh, a winning combination for a summer red. Produced by independent winegrowers jointly with two local cooperatives, it's a blend of grapes from all over the small Madiran appellation, yet manages to give you a sense of place.

Madiran is both a village and a wine area in Gascony, just north of the Pyrenees, part of France's large, heterogeneous Sud-Ouest wine region. The reason the wines there are so good for the heart is Madiran's main grape, tannin-heavy tannat. Corder, who published his research findings in his 2007 book, "The Red Wine Diet," found that red wines contain a plant chemical called procyanidin, a type of protective antioxidant that improves heart function and prevents heart disease. And the tannat grape, especially in Madiran, has more procyanidins than any other red variety.

Wines from Madiran long had a reputation for being so concentrated and tannic it took years of aging before they were drinkable. Though many are 100 percent tannat, most, like this one, are blended with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc and are now being made in a much brighter, more approachable, drink-me-sooner style.

So the "1907" is not just great to drink right now, it's good for you, too.

Zester Daily contributor Elin McCoy is a wine and spirits columnist and author of "The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste."

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