Domaine Treloar Cotes du Roussillon Tahi, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

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A blend of 55% Syrah, 27% Mourvèdre and 18% Grenache, the 2015 C?tes du Roussillon Tahi spent 18 months in 40% new French oak, then another few years in the bottle prior to release. Scents of leather, cedar and vanilla accent black cherries and cola on the nose, while the palate is full-bodied and reasonably soft but still remains a bit tannic on the long finish.

The flagship wine of the estate, the 2013 C?tes du Roussillon Tahi—and yes, that's the current release—is a blend of 64% Syrah and 18% each Grenache and Mourvèdre, aged a year in French oak barriques (20% new) and then cellared at the estate pending release. It's still impressively dark and unevolved in hue, offering up hints of pepper, clove, cigar box, leather and plummy fruit on the nose. In the mouth, it's smooth and supple with age, almost creamy in feel without being heavy at all, finishing dry and softly astringent. If you don't have the cellar space or patience to age Roussillon wines, this is a nicely matured example that should continue to drink well for at least another five years.

The Treloar 2008 Cotes du Roussillon Tahi - from the Maori word for the number one - represents, explains Hesford, "my take on blending the best wine that I can from each year," and incorporating the estate's best parcels of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. Richly ripe cassis and dark cherry are accented by game, resin, and black tea smokiness. There is a welcome sense of primary juiciness in the finish here such as is missing from the corresponding 2007, or in the 2008 Le Secret. I imagine this being worth following for 4-6 years, although I lack experience with wines from the first few years of this estate. Like so many modern wine growers, English-born Jonathan Hesford - trained as a physicist - admits to having "just started out as a lover of wine" and then gotten carried-away. He and his wife Rachel Treloar left her native New Zealand in 2005 after acquiring a run-down old winery in Trouillas (not far south of Perpignan) with diverse parcels of various cepages. The attraction of Roussillon was - as it has been for so many "outsiders" - the availability of proven terroir and old vines at a reasonable price; and "what impressed me," says Hesford about the Les Aspres sector, "is that there's a lot of (water-retentive) clay in the soil, so you get a bit more freshness into the wine. For the kinds of wine I wanted to make, I thought this was more appropriate than, say, the Agly Valley." The kinds of wine Hesford makes are really quite diverse, not to mention evolving, and promising.There is at present no U.S. importer.

A maple syrup-like sense of resin and caramel results from the use of new American oak in Treloar's 2007 Cotes du Roussillon Tahi, a cast which will not be to everyone's taste, and which strikes me as not entirely integrated into the wine's otherwise seamlessly ripe if slightly stewed black fruit. "I've tried this cuvee with French oak," observes Hesford, "and what you get is this clash of tannins," especially when the percentage of Syrah is high (and in this instance it's 50% - the rest being Grenache and Mourvedre), although I find the tannins a bit constrictive of the finish even here. Hints of black tea and beef blood add welcome interest, though. One might speculate on the smoothing-out of tannin, but not I think on a reinforcing influx of sheer juiciness. I would plan on drinking this over the next couple of years. Like so many modern wine growers, English-born Jonathan Hesford - trained as a physicist - admits to having "just started out as a lover of wine" and then gotten carried-away. He and his wife Rachel Treloar left her native New Zealand in 2005 after acquiring a run-down old winery in Trouillas (not far south of Perpignan) with diverse parcels of various cepages. The attraction of Roussillon was - as it has been for so many "outsiders" - the availability of proven terroir and old vines at a reasonable price; and "what impressed me," says Hesford about the Les Aspres sector, "is that there's a lot of (water-retentive) clay in the soil, so you get a bit more freshness into the wine. For the kinds of wine I wanted to make, I thought this was more appropriate than, say, the Agly Valley." The kinds of wine Hesford makes are really quite diverse, not to mention evolving, and promising.There is at present no U.S. importer.