Tandem is the fruit of an unlikely partnership born in 2003, when Alain Graillot — the celebrated Syrah producer behind Domaine Graillot in Crozes-Hermitage — crossed paths with Jacques Poulain, the Bordeaux-trained winemaker who has overseen Domaine des Ouled Thaleb since 1997, on a cycling trip through Morocco. Founded in 1923 and the oldest active winery in the country, Domaine des Ouled Thaleb sits in Benslimane, around 50 kilometres northeast of Casablanca, where two distinct parcels supply the 100% Syrah: Rommani, with its black clay-limestone soils on gentle hills at roughly 600 metres altitude, and Aïn Brachoua, a lower-lying site of sandy schist and gravel open to Atlantic breezes; both are harvested by hand in August.

The grapes are destemmed and fermented in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts, followed by a deliberately short maceration of seven to eight days aimed at finesse over extraction, before ageing half in concrete and half in French oak barrels from cooperage François Frères, with no filtration or fining. The Revue du Vin de France awarded it 17/20.