2016 - Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert Rouge, Mas de Daumas Gassac

The 2016 Rouge is a stunner. Swirling the glass unlocks magnificent garrigue, crushed violets, cassis pastilles, licorice and verbena tea elements. Built around a core of polished tannins and kept in check by refreshing acidity, the quintessential 2016 superbly marries power and finesse. Closing with a persistent finish, it comes with secure aging potential and deserves a round of applause.

Bottled just two weeks before my visit, the flagship red 2016 IGP Saint Guilhem le Desert was showing very well. A blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, with single-digit proportions of other varieties, it spent a year in barrel (about 15% new oak). It's an herb-tinged wine, with leafy cassis notes and some redder fruit. Medium to full-bodied, it shows typical Cabernet Sauvignon restraint and structure on the palate, accompanied by soft, dusty tannins. Give it a couple of years, but then it should drink well for over a decade.

Full bottle 1,335 g. 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Dolcetto, 3% Malbec, 3% Pinot Noir, 3% Nebbiolo. Fermented in stainless steel, aged for 12 months in used oak barrels. So vivid, so carmine bright and mouth-wateringly crimson and indigo blue that it is almost impossible to believe that this wine is nearly nine years old. It tastes as if it just powered itself out of the fermenter. But it's smooth – unlike its baby sibling 2024, there are no fangs, no rough edges. The engine is revving into purr, handbrake off and gliding into fifth gear, ready to cruise. The fruit pools and brims, as dark as a love bite at the mineral core, as bright as blood on the ever-widening rim. Sweetness not as a specious play for affection or attention, but as a depth charge, drawing you closer to the quiet thunder of graphite and mithril, gunpowder and iron in its spinal cord. The tannins taste and feel like a coming storm, and I can feel something in me quicken with the thrill of power and expectation. (TC)