It was exciting to see that the 2017 Nicolas, all old-vine Grenache from three terroirs, was showing more red fruit and freshness than the 2016. It's still rich, deep and velvety in texture, but it's livelier and should be a similarly rocking value once it's released.
- Robert Parker, 93 pts
About the Producer
For twenty years, we have worked with Jean-Marc Lafage at his estate in the Roussillon and across the border in Spain, where he consults on several projects. As good as his wines were when we first met him, they only get better with each vintage. When we first made his acquaintance in Calatayud, he suggested we visit his estate in the Roussillon, and the rest, as they say, is history. Jean-Marc's start in the wine business was not an overnight success. While his family has been growing grapes and making wine in the Roussillon since 1791, it was Jean-Marc's early insight into the potential for the Roussillon to make a wide range of dry wines at very affordable prices that established his "new" estate. For most of the 20th century, the region was famous for its fortified dessert wines - Rivesaltes, Banyuls & Maury. Most of these wines were made at large facilities that purchased grapes from local growers, including Jean-Marc's ancestors. While his grandfather and father made wine for the family, Jean-Marc was the first to break away from the cooperative model to make his own wine commercially. Over the generations, his family had amassed scattered vineyards throughout the region, which now totals over 160 hectares of vines, most of them in excess of 50 years in age. Another factor in Jean-Marc's success is the diversity of the terroirs in the Roussillon.
