The Maury Sec appellation came into being in 2011, covering the same magnificent Agly Valley sites that have long been used for the dark, sweet and chocolate-friendly fortified wines of the Maury appellation alone. The potential here to make dense and almost shockingly rich dry red wines lent profundity by their mineral charge is enormous, and this is the first wine of this sort that we've seen emerge into the bright sunlight of our Best In Show selection. Our judging panel was hugely impressed: 'Authentic, traditional terroir-styled wine with great complexity and sense of place' summarised one. Like our Croatian Plavac Mali, at 15.5% it's not a wine for the faint-hearted and would be best served in the depths of winter, when you need reminding of summer's solar force. It's dark purple-red in colour, sending a billow of beautiful blackberry fruit up from the glass. The weight in the mouth is splendid, and the wine perfectly illustrates the way in which great tannins can be both flavoury as well as textured. Those blackberry fruits are everywhere, given lift by sappy acidity and without any oak noise to spoil the party; such oak as the wine has had is simply there to tame youthful exuberance, and the longer you spend with the fruit the more you realise that it is packed with herbal and stone complexities, too. A stunning debut for Maury Sec at the highest levels of our competition.