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

"A solid, driven and structured red with a spicy lift. Aromas of cherries, cassis, sweet spices and Mediterranean herbs. Full-bodied with fine, firm tannins. Vivid with a bright core of succulent red berries and a fresh, zesty finish. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification.”