After a cool start to the year, in spite of a cool rainy spring we had a relatively good flowering, and then a long dry period in July, August and September. Quality-wise, 2018 turned out to be another excellent vintage - now four in a row, from 2015 to 2018 - with real ripeness and concentration.

Big, black, bramble fruit with a slatey minerality, and some softening, supportive oak.

This is a concentrated wine with loads of power and length. A luscious and big wine with very approachable fruit and moderate tannins. Layers of black and red cherry fruit are combined with wafts of herbs and vanilla.

Vibrant dark black

Carignan is especially good with charcuterie and wild boar sausage, but it also pairs well with grilled lamb, and most barbequed meats.

The wine was drained into 500L 3-year-old demi-muids, and two of these barrels were earmarked for our 100% carignan. The wine was aged for 18 months.

Harvested by hand on a cold morning of Tuesday 2nd October, a very good crop of healthy Carignan grapes from our 80+ year-old vineyard at La Roque. Yield 25hl/ha

This vintage was due to be bottled in late March, but the bottling was cancelled, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. We re-scheduled the bottling for early June.