Daniel Lafitte’s estate near Maury was new to me this year, and I cannot say I yet have a fix on his style, since I found three of his wines really lovely and some others merely good. The Soulanes 2003 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Sarrat del Mas – from close to equal parts Syrah, Carignan, and Grenache, aged in barriques and demi-muids – smells of black raspberry jam, toasted walnuts, pralines, and pungent crushed stone. Creamy in texture, it finishes with subtle sweetness and discrete nuttiness, quite polished and refined overall, even though that is not the way I would have described a couple of other Soulanes releases that I tasted in the last nine months.Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800