2013 Lafage Tessellae Old Vines Côtes du Roussillon

Jean-Marc Lafage has again created a coup of a wine from the hilly landscape of Roussillon. The grapes come from up to 60-year-old vines growing in black slate soil at an altitude of 150 metres. The combination of Grénache, Syrah and Mouvèdre grapes is best known from the Southern Rhone (GSM) but works superbly here in Roussillon, where the wine gets extra minerality from the slatey soil. Jean-Marc also adds a small part of the rare Grénache Gris (white grape with pink grape skin) which adds light floral notes to the wine. The wine is not aged in oak barrels but 12 months in cement tanks and bottled unfiltered to preserve as much fruit and minerality as possible. The result is an intense wine with a wealth of fruit in both aroma and flavour. Ripe cherries, blackberries and blueberries with notes of liquorice, spice and floral touches. Deliciously soft, round, medium-bodied and seductive. Intense but with a nice purity and an elegant underlying minerality.""