Lafage Château Saint-Roch Chimères

The 2018 Côtes du Roussillon Villages Chimères is 40% Grenache and 30% each Carignan and Syrah, aged 14 months in a combination of concrete tanks and oak demi-muids. Like virtually all of the Lafage-affiliated wines, it overdelivers for the price, offering up bushels of blueberries, cherries and stone fruit, tamed into savoriness on the finish by hints of wood spice and black olives. It's full-bodied and concentrated but supple, making it drinkable now and over the next five or so years. Impressively, this is a stronger effort than the 2017.

Deep crimson. Sweet, ripe, dark-red fruit and perfumed, really fragrant for what seems like a rich and powerful wine, to judge from the colour and the aroma. A touch of vanilla. On the palate it has remarkable freshness and an attractive combination of juicy fluid fruit and dry, fine tannins. Elegant and supple, with a long, dry fruity finish. This has notes of rocky graphite on the finish, giving you a clue to where you are but the freshness is impressive for the sunny Roussillon. A lovely wine that you could drink now – but better with food – and no hurry as it is still so full of vibrant youthfulness. I may be being too conservative with the drink dates but the fruit is so delicious I wouldn't want to lose it all to tertiary complexity.