2018 Ritou Syrah, Vin de France, Domaine Vallet

Domaine Vallet Ritou Syrah 2018 Vin de France is a gleaming syrah, with a plume of bright scent, an underlying sensation of hard rock and bacon fat. It’s a syrah for drinking in its youth but there is just a trace of a savage hinterland.

As with the [Ritou] viognier, the grapes come from the village of Serrières which is inside the St Joseph appellation, but only the slopes, where the soils are mostly granite, are classified, and this syrah is from flatter vineyards, close to the river, where the soil is more clay and sand, hence the classification as Vin de France. The wine is immensely satisfying stuff.