Deep ruby-red. Highly perfumed red fruit preserve, incense and Asian spice aromas show excellent clarity and pick up a smoky mineral element with air. Sappy, sweet and penetrating on the palate, offering juicy raspberry, cherry and lavender pastille flavors and a touch of spicecake. Closes on a vibrating mineral note, delivering well-knit tannins and floral-driven persistence.

Beaurenard has excelled this vintage. The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape is no slouch, with ample richness, bold cherry and apricot fruit and attractive hints of dried spices and garrigue. Complex, full-bodied and supple, it finishes long and silky. It's two-thirds Grenache Noir, with the rest composed of the 17 other permitted grape varieties.

Just like the regular cuvée, the 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Boisrenard includes all 18 of the appellation's permitted varieties, although it's mostly (66%) Grenache Noir. Strawberries and raspberries shine on the nose, followed by a full-bodied palate that's creamy-silky and lush but also bright, lively and long. It's a super effort, at what should be a realistic price.

Solidly built, with a sappy core of kirsch, blackberry paste and red licorice flavors tightly coiled together and backed by roasted apple wood, warm stone and tobacco leaf notes through the finish. The beautiful fruit should develop nicely with extended cellaring, as this has serious grip and drive. Best from 2020 through 2040.

Nicely packed, with raspberry and plum compote flavors at the core, liberally lined with singed alder, tobacco and warm brick accents. The finish has a grippy edge, but this red stays fresh and driven overall. Best from 2020 through 2030. 6,000 cases made.

As to the barrel samples, the 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape offers a ripe, dense, powerful profile as well as loads of currant and cassis fruits, full body, a big, rich mid-palate, and a blockbuster finish. I hope it shows this well from bottle!

More Burgundian, with a silky, elegant, finesse-driven style, the 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard is medium to full-bodied and nicely structured, with beautiful purity in its cassis, black cherry, flowers, forest floor, and leafy herb-like aromas and flavors. This wine always picks up depth and richness in bottle and is going to benefit from short-term cellaring.

Moving to the reds, the 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape offers plenty of Bing cherry, spice, and some salty minerality in a fresh, elegant, incredibly Burgundian style. It’s finesse-driven, has terrific purity, and will evolve nicely for 10-12 years.

More complex and nuanced as well as powerful, the 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard is a field blend (two-thirds Grenache and the rest a mix of varieties) that spent 18 months in a combination of older barrels, new barrels, and foudre. Its deep purple/ruby color is followed by a sensational perfume of blackberries, black raspberries, Asian spices, and graphite. With full-bodied richness, building tannin, remarkable purity, and a huge finish...

There are two Rasteau releases from Domaine de Beaurenard and the entry level 2017 Rasteau has loads to love as well as outstanding potential. Offering lots of darker fruits, spice, new leather, and garrigue, it’s medium-bodied, nicely balanced, and has building minerality and scorched earth notes on the finish. It’s going to drink nicely right out of the gate.

The flagship 2017 Rasteau Argiles Bleues is a beauty that exudes class as well as a complex, nuanced character. Black cherries, spice, dried garrigue, and leather notes give way to a medium to full-bodied, concentrated, nicely structured effort that should benefit from a year or two of bottle age.

Just 5% of this wine is matured in new oak barriques, the rest spending time in old barriques and foudres for 18 months. It's all destemmed fruit, lending a nose of raspberry with lifted notes of bergamot and cinnamon. It's full-bodied, rich and flowing on the palate, with a considerable weight of wet-clay tannins. An opulent style, it hangs on to its brightness and drinkability. 66% Grenache, 12% Syrah, 12% Mourvèdre, 1% Cinsault, 1% Terret Noir

Heather, flint and delicate white pepper notes weave through the creamy white cherry, peach and tangerine flavors of this elegant rosé. Offers a clean, minerally finish. Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Rolle. Drink now.

Alluring peach and red berry aromas, followed by orange blossom and elderflower. There’s a
mineral end to this, with a strong and persistent saline acidity coming through.

Cherry, walnut and stone aromas and flavors. Medium body. Firm, lightly chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.

This is very dense and serious with freshness and powerful acidity that gives it intensity and focus. Goes on and on with so much floral and sliced-lime flavor and hints of white flowers, pear blossom and minerals. So beautiful to drink now, but will improve with age.

This impressive bottling relies on Flora grapes for its core (67%), blended with 19% Chardonnay and 14% Pinot Noir. There's an intentional sweetness to the wine that makes it off dry in peach, pineapple and honey. Lively acidity keeps it balanced with a lift and energy in between the welcome richness.

Mouthwatering lime, pear and green apple flavors are appealing for their focus and intensity. Mandarin orange notes and a dash of mango increase the fruit focus on the finish. Drink now.

The 2016 Chianti Classico is all class. Fresh, floral and beautifully lifted, the 2016 offers a terrific expression of the estate in its mid-weight personality. All the elements meld together in this effortless, classy wine from the family. The 2016 is quite accessible today, but it also has enough brightness to age nicely for a number of years. What a pretty wine it is.

Aromas of cherries, dried strawberries and red plums. Medium to full body, round and ripe tannins and a nice, fresh finish. Drink now.