2017 Ventoux Divergente

An old vine Syrah-dominated blend, brought up all in foudre, the 2017 Ventoux Divergent offers extraordinary notes of black fruits, bacon fat, camphor, and garrigue. Seeming to have one foot in the Northern Rhône and one in the Southern Rhône, it’s a ripe, layered, multi-dimensional Syrah that has a terrific mid-palate, a great texture, and the structure to benefit from a year or two of bottle age and evolve gracefully for over a decade. This reference point estate in Ventoux continues to make a bevy of brilliant wines. While their more Grenache dominated releases ooze Provençal charm, I always find a more Northern Rhône like vibe in their Syrahs.

Cask sample. Heavily reductive nose giving a rubber and smoke aroma, plus bitter black fruit and plenty of peppery spice. Nicely balanced, but the flavour porfile teeters between reductive and bitter, which isn't the easiest combo. (RH)