Provence is best known for it’s rapidly improving rosé wines, though these are most often drunk by summer visitors who then promptly forget them when they return to rainier climes, discarded along with the straw hats and espadrilles.

What has attracted less attention is that the region’s red wines have undergone a similar transformation, and one of my favorites is this week’s Nick’s Wine of the Week Five Star offering, the Chateau de Roquefort Gueule de Loup ($16).

The unusual thing about this wine, other than its fanciful name, is that it has no vintage designation. This is almost unheard of outside the rarefied world of champagne, and here’s the producer’s explanation. In the celebrity-free part of Provence, a few kilometers east of Marseilles and not far from Bandol, “winemaker Raimond de Villeneuve decided to create a distinctive new wine by blending two vintages, 2007 and 2008. The result of this balancing act is greater than the sum of its parts: a charming new cuvée that delivers immediate fresh fruit pleasure from Provence.”

Yes, I was skeptical too, but the blending of the two vintages really does work, and results in a wine of both depth and complexity. Perhaps this is making a virtue out of a necessity but it is an admirable virtue nonetheless.

The wine has a glorious deep garnet color, and it’s rare to find such freshness, focus, structure and vivacious personality at such a modest price. It’s a delight of balance and fruity harmony, just bursting with the flavors of strawberries, blackberries and white cherries, and as such is the perfect wine to serve a little chilled at a summer barbecue.

To find this wine near you, try www.wine-searcher.com