This wine is from France, Languedoc Roussillon region, Rousillon sub-region and Banyuls appellation. Chapoutier’s 2009 Banyuls does an excellent job of projecting in fortified, sweet format the sorts of herbal elements - fennel, juniper, marjoram - that are characteristically associated in dry red wine with the environmental underbrush or garrigue. Plum and blueberry preserves along with mint chocolate form the principle themes for a soothing wine that - while rather superficially sweet - retains a welcome degree of primary juiciness as well as the aforementioned herbal characteristics that help to offset that sweetness in what is an impressively long finish. I suspect this will be most enjoyable over the next 3-4 years, though perhaps greater interest and - after a considerable elapse of time - a diminution in sucrosity will develop. (Chapoutier’s 2008 Banyuls was reported to have been entirely sold-out inside France, and there was not a bottle available for me to taste during my visit to Chapoutier’s Roussillon - Domaine Bila-Haut - facility.) Fortified GRENACHE Wine