The perfect bottle for someone who wants Beaujolais Nouveau but needs it with a little Grenache or Syrah intensity. 2022 you say? Younger than most of the rosé I drink. Vibrant blue-rimmed ruby, a nose so awash in the ills of youth and fresh bottling it’s actually painful. The bright fruit still has that smoky patina of raw earth, sulphur and SS grating at every pore. Could it even be carbonic? It feels like Syrah, and I have no place-mark for Grenache at this age for comparison, but who knows.

Brash and driven my adolescent insecurity, the acid a wallop of shrill dry mineral evisceratingly garish, the fruit a shallow burn of ungracious charm tapering off to thin beauty. Rather drinkable, however, and would be interesting to see where it was late-summer or even in a year or two. Bitter and unforgiving on almost all counts across the palate, it still manages rather delightful cranberry and sour-cherry stuffing in barrel-sample form.

2022 LA VIGNE du ROY Cotes du Rhone AOC 13.0

https://vignoblescompagnie.com/en/