Very deep garnet with ruby rim. Enticing and complex aroma that is dark fruited, part herbal-edged cassis part blackberry, with a little bite that is tangy red fruit – still so much fruit – and a touch savoury/smoky and something like crushed rocks even with all this fruit. Still has a light sweetness of oak, now so well integrated that it is one with the peppery black fruit that is so Syrah. There’s also a northern Rhône scented (peony?) purity to the aroma, even though we are in the southern Rhône, thanks to the elevation of the vineyard, I imagine. Maturity arrives slowly with this wine but I can just sense the start of a more savoury black-olive character and a touch of smoked meat on the palate. I can perhaps imagine lavender in the background floral quality. The scent seems to be more lifted on the day after opening. Even with all this burgeoning complexity, the fruit still plays the starring role as the winemaking influences recede. Rich and full but not fat in the mouth, succulent, deep on fruit but still mouth-wateringly fresh. Even with those northern Rhône floral notes, this is elegantly southern Rhône in its generosity of fruit and rounded, smooth, fully resolved tannins. Resolved they may be but this wine is only just getting into its stride, with many years’ bottle age ahead of it. This needs time and air and gets better and better in the glass.