Domaine de Cébène Felgaria 2015 Faugères

Made from the estate's best plots of old Mourvedre, Syrah and Grenache vines, this wine - which is the only one in the Cébène range that sees any sort of oak ageing - has an utterly compelling perfume. Offering fresh and crystallised red and black fruit aromas, garrigue herbs, forest floor, curry spices, burning incense and polished old wood, with subtle rose and peppermint notes, it is hard to imagine a more complex and elegant nose. And the palate doesn't disappoint - all manner of soused berry, cherry and redcurrant fruit flavours combine once again with myriad herby, spicy and tertiary elements. It is a tightly structured wine - focused and elegant, with all of those flavours melding together seamlessly around a core of fine, velvety, lapsang tea-like tannins, a hint of wet stone minerality and mouth-watering acidity. Every element comes together in complete harmony, and the finish goes on for an age. It grips, but also caresses, in the most glorious way. A pièce de résistance.