Rhone Wine

The opaque ruby/purple-colored 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape offers a profoundly sweet perfume of melted licorice, blackberries, and black cherries backed up by loads of glycerin, full body, and moderately high but sweet, well-integrated... Read More

The 2003 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape turned out as well as I could have hoped and is certainly an outstanding wine, deep ruby/purple with a tight but promising nose of black fruits, loamy, earthy notes intermixed with pepper,... Read More

Unfortunately, the 2003 Châteauneuf du Pape Hommage À Jacques Perrin was subtly corked. You could still see its potential (and I recommended the table drink it quickly before the TCA became even more apparent), but this is the... Read More

Tasted three weeks after bottling, I couldn't quite bring myself to give the elusive three-digit score to this admittedly super wine. Perhaps once the 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage à Jacques Perrin has been in bottle a... Read More

This is a Provencal, peppery, spicy, garrigue-scented wine, with extraordinary concentration, loads of glycerin, full body, yet no sense of heaviness or lack of definition. Enormously-endowed and majestic, it possesses a huge... Read More

The Cuvee Centenaire is produced from ancient vine (planted in 1889) Grenache (80% of the blend, along with 8% Syrah and 12% Mourvedre). The 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Centenaire is superior to the 2000, but slightly behind... Read More

The full-bodied, silky-textured 2018 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc is an equal-parts blend of Bourboulenc, Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Picpoul Blanc and Roussanne, part of which went into oak (30%). Tropical notes of banana and papaya... Read More

The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc Extrait is a stunning blend of 80% Roussanne and 20% Grenache Blanc, matured in concrete and demi-muids. This medium to full-bodied wine is lush and creamy on the palate yet stays zesty and fresh,... Read More

Crushed rock, spring flowers and a liqueur of granite are all present in the inky/purple colored 2010 Ermitage L'Ermite. It is almost a crime trying to describe a wine such as this, since so few people will ever get to taste... Read More

The 1993 Le Pavilion is the Hermitage of the Vintage. More austere than when I tasted it prior to bottling, it is one of the few 1993s with a sweet inner core of fruit, as well as a dense ruby/purple color, outstanding concentration... Read More

Bottled just two weeks prior to my visit, the 2017 Chateau Grillet was still looking awfully good for having been fined, filtered and stuck into a confined space. It's a forward, opulent vintage, boasting flamboyant stone-fruit... Read More

WA 98 (10/2008): The 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape is one of the two or three candidates for the wine of the vintage. An extraordinarily great wine, the 2006 is far superior to the 2005, which was amazing, and while made in a different... Read More

The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape is full-bodied but balanced, with plenty of richness and concentration but also a certain paradoxical lightness. It offers complex garrigue and anise notes, a blend of cherry and raspberry fruit, a... Read More

This is a stunner, offering a gorgeous core of black tea-infused cassis, plum reduction and raspberry puree flavors. Additional black licorice, black tea and incense notes emerge alongside the fruit on the long, lush, seductive... Read More