Domaine de Cébène Felgaria 2017 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. As with previous vintages, this one offers a wonderfully complex, high-toned and heady perfume, but is more influenced by red fruit aromas and flavours this time - notably, redcurrant, red cherry and raspberry, but again with subtle hints of seville orange, blackcurrant, myriad herbs and exotic spices, new leather and just the merest hint of older oak. The palate is once again taut and youthful, yet massively complex and elegant, offering a combination of fresh and crystallised mixed red and black fruit flavours, subtly spicy and savoury, with lots of earthy/mineral notes, gently grippy but ripe tannins and bags of cherry kernel acidity, with a long, cool, minty finish. At the time of tasting (December 2022), this wine is really only just beginning to get into its stride - lovely to drink already, but with so much more to give, with a few more years in bottle. Another truly lovely wine, which has the quietly-spoken Brigitte Chevalier's stamp of femininity all over it. It isn't cheap, but Faugères does not get any better than this. In fact, Languedoc wine of any description rarely gets any better.