As many times as we have promoted wines from the portfolio of Jean-Marc Lafage, it would be hard to imagine that we haven’t covered every conceivable aspect of the winery’s background. To give you a short synopsis we will pull a few lines from the Wine Advocate, longtime cheerleader for Lafage through multiple writers over the years, and his remarkable value portfolio. From current Advocate Rhone editor Joe Czerwinski, “The dynamic Jean Marc Lafage has rapidly expanded his holdings and production in the past decade, since he began working with American importer Eric Solomon. There’s a huge, state-of-the-art winery and a seemingly endless number of cuvées to taste through… Even if I’m slightly less enthusiastic than the previous WA reviewer about some of the entry-level wines, there are still many screaming values in the lineup…”
Like the man said, there are seemingly endless bottlings to evaluate, but we always make it a point to check out anything from Jean Marc because his ‘hit rate’ over the last decade or so has been amazing, and the ‘value factor’ virtually unmatched. The hits just keep on coming. Today’s subject is one of the more recent additions to the extensive Lafage lineup, kicking off in 2014. We sold a good bit of that 2014 Domaine Lafage Narassa in a very short time back in November of 2016, no surprise, really, given the review (Wine Advocate 93) and the price ($15.98). We had another good run with the 2017 last year, a Jeb Dunnuck 94.
We tasted the newest edition, now called Famille Lafage Cotes Catalanes Narassa 2018, recently and felt that Jean Marc was ‘in the money’ once again. Since that 2014 opening salvo, every wine scored over 91 points and sold for under $20. Broad and ample in the mouth, the 2018 had plenty of round fruit, supple, laid-back tannins, well integrated acidity and a subtle streak of minerality courtesy of the black schist soils around the Roussillon town of Maury. The grapes are sourced from 60+-year-old vines, the old vines sitting in unique, aforementioned black schist soils in a fairly remote area in southern France. This distinct, somewhat ‘wild’ area is an important key to the special character of the wines from this region.
We aren’t surprised that Jeb Dunnuck was on board once again. How can you not cheer for a producer that is making wines that are both ample and nuanced for this kind of price! Jeb’s take on the 2018 Narassa, “ Almost all Grenache yet with 8% Syrah, the deep purple 2018 Narassa gives up a gorgeous bouquet of blueberries, kirsch liqueur, smoked game, violets, and lavender. It’s rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and has a great finish…93 points.”
If a player is on a hot streak, you want to get the ball in their hands. Lafage definitely is in the ‘zone’ and has been for a while. We have sold a lot of Lafage over the years, and for good reason. But each of the bottlings we have offered, while generally uniform in the sense that they perform well above their stations and provide superb value, are each of distinctive personality as well.
These days many value wines are not ‘created in the vineyard’. The winemaking ‘formula’ overrides everything else. That is the beauty of Lafage. The wines not only deliver quality and value, but retain the character and purity of their region as well. One of importer Eric Solomon’s credos is ‘place over process’. None of his expansive legion of wineries is any better an example of that than Lafage. Once again, as always, it’s a lot of wine for the fare ($19.98).