Big, balanced, delicious (continued...)

Quinta do Vale Meão, Douro, Portugal 2012

95 £89.99-£ 115 Corks, Harvey Nichols, Hedonism, Pinot & Chardo, Roberts & Speight Deep, savoury, complex, enticing: generosity is just one side of a multi-faceted personality; indeed it’s hard to imagine expressive force of this order without the palate wealth to back it up. Black fruits, earth, crushed rock, plant essences: they’re all here, and the sweetness the wine showed in its youth is beginning to settle and resolve. Drink 2018-2032 Alc 14%

Clos Erasmus, Laurel, Priorat, Catalonia, Spain 2015 94

£37.50 (2016) Indigo Wine This accessibly priced offering from the Priorat star seems well named: blackcurrant, citrus blossom and tea-leaf scents provide ample lift to the wine’s generous flesh and weight. Great Priorat, though, always has an inner energy and tension; that’s evident here. Drink 2018-2028 Alc 15%

Torres, Mas La Plana, Penedès, Catalonia, Spain 2013 94

£40.50-£48.99 Exel, Italian Continental Stores, Soho Wine Supply, The Wine Shop Winscombe, Waitrose A dark, fragrant, aromatically enticing wine whose richly curranty black fruits have now had the time in bottle to meld and soften into something more haunting, resinous, sunlit and Catalan. Svelte, poised and finally melting on the palate: generosity at its gentlest. Drink 2018-2030 Alc 14.5%

Borie la Vitarèle, Les Schistes, St- Chinian, LanguedocRoussillon, France 2015 93

£21.25 H2Vin & Quintessentially, Terra Wines, Vagabond Wines The scents of this high-grown blend of Grenache and Syrah, with a dash of Carignan, are pure garrigue: pristine and hauntingly perfumed with leaf oils, subtle juniper, lavender and herbs. Richly flavoured, bright, shocking, yet its alcohol doesn’t even blip on the radar. Drink 2018-2024 Alc 14.5%