Domaine de Cébène Felgaria 2016 Faugères

From the finest plots of south-facing Mourvedre and north-facing Syrah and Grenache, grown on an isolated hill at 320 m above sea level. This is Brigitte Chevalier's top cuvée and the only one which sees any sort of oak regime, being both fermented and aged in used 500 litre barrels for 1 year. And it certainly combines all of the best aspects of her other three cuvées. A youthful, bright cherry red colour, it is a wine made for the long haul, and therefore benefits from a little air before drinking. It offers a wonderfully complex and heady perfume of cassis, bramble and blackcurrant mingled with high-toned black cherry and seville orange, myriad herbs and exotic spices, blood/meat, new leather and a hint of beautifully judged oak. The palate is at the same time taut and youthful, yet complex, supple and elegant, offering a combination of fresh and crystallised red and black fruit flavours, again subtly spicy and savoury, with lots of earthy/mineral notes, fine, lapsang tea-like tannins and ample acidity. The finish is long, cool and minty. This is a truly lovely wine, which has the quietly-spoken Brigitte Chevalier's stamp of femininity all over it. It caresses rather than gropes, in a Bandol-meets-Burgundy sort of way, and those with the patience to wait for it to reveal its full charms will be richly rewarded. Let's be honest, it isn't cheap.......... but Faugères does not get any better than this. In fact, Languedoc wine of any description rarely gets any better.