Domaine Lafage Cayrol 2024

Domaine Lafage makes Cayrol in VDP des Côtes Catalanes, in French Roussillon south of the Spanish border. The name refers to the cayrols, the fired clay bricks long used to build the small vineyard huts that dot the Catalan landscape on both sides of the border. The wine is a single-variety Carignan, the old workhorse grape of the Mediterranean that gives deeply coloured, structured reds when the vines are old and the yields kept low. Lafage's old vines grow on the stony, schist and clay soils of the Roussillon plain, where the hot sun and the drying tramontane wind concentrate the fruit and keep the grapes healthy. The wine spends just one month in barrel, a light touch that rounds the texture and softens the tannins while keeping the focus firmly on the fresh, savoury fruit. It pours a deep ruby. The nose shows bright red berries, plum and cherry, with black pepper, liquorice and a dried-herb, earthy lift. The palate is medium to full bodied, with the firm but ripe tannins typical of Carignan, fresh acidity and a savoury, peppery finish. Serve at sixteen degrees. Good with grilled meats and Mediterranean dishes.