Kermit Lynch Cabrieres Rouge

50% Syrah, 35% Grenache, 10% Carignan, 5% Cinsault. Lower your nose into a glass of this inky rouge, redolent of dark fruit, black olive, and garrigue, and you know immediately where you are: the south of France.

More specifically, you are in Cabrières, one of the great, underrated communes of the Languedoc, situated an hour due west of Montpellier and several hundred meters above sea level. Here, in the high-elevation hills, where the days are warm and the nights are cool, Jean-Claude Zabalia crafts this red that displays a sneaky amount of minerality and finesse despite its rustic quaffing soul.