2010 Cotes du Rhone

(100% syrah): Vivid purple. High-toned, intensely perfumed nose displays dark berries, licorice and smoked meat, with a sexy floral topnote. Juicy, broad and a bit wild, with sweet, floral-accented blackberry and cassis flavors that show very good depth and energy. Closes sappy and long, with lingering violet and black pepper notes.

Mid crimson. Spicily aromatic. Juicy and incredibly smooth though the tannins are there. Sweet red fruit makes this eminently approachable but it's not simple. (JH)

Of the other wines to look for that I reviewed last year, which are now in bottle and showing even better, the 100% Syrah cuvee, the 2009 Cotes du Rhone, comes from cool microclimates of Syrah in Vinsobres and La Garde. Dense ruby/purple, with loads of melted chocolate, espresso, cassis and blackberry, this inky, full-bodied wine has no hard edges and is just a big, corpulent mouthful of Syrah to drink over the next several years. It has taken a while, but one of my favorite producers in the southern Rhone, Louis Barruol of Saint-Cosme, is getting very good publicity just about everywhere I look. It is certainly well-deserved, considering the broad range of wines he produces, from his inexpensive and over-delivering Cotes du Rhones and Vins de Pays, to his top-flight, world-class wines made in Gigondas. This is all a matter of hard work and understanding viticulture and great terroirs. As for the estate wines from Gigondas, 2009 was a more challenging vintage for Louis Barruol than many people probably understand, because he had some serious hail issues that cut into his Grenache crop. His best vintage to date is 2007, but 2010 is going to come close, and he has certainly excelled in a much more difficult vintage for him personally, 2009. The 2010s are probably Barruol’s greatest vintage since 2007, yet slightly more tannic and backward at a similar stage in their development than the 2007s were. All of the following wines are 100% Grenache, with the exception of the first two. Importer: The Country Vintner, Ashland, VA tel 804-752-3670 x160