2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reine Bois

Inky violet. Powerful, ripe aromas of dark berry liqueur with a good dose of vanillin oak. Lush, creamy and round, with deep, sweet boysenberry and mulberry flavors along with exotic oak spice and vanilla tones. Very long on the finish, with a palate-saturating flavor of sweet dark berry liqueur note, with great length and palate coverage. I wonder about the oak here.

80% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre, 5% Vaccarèse. From lieu-dit La Crau. 100% destemmed. 30% barriques, 70% stainless steel. 15,000 bottles produced. Unusually deep, dark crimson. Very different from most. Clearly very concentrated but so far pretty inexpressive. Juicy and sweet with the tannins pretty rounded but not much actual flavour development yet. Good acid balance. Perhaps this is just too young? Strange cut off on the finish. Very much an unknown quantity at this point. (JR)

A brilliant showing, the ’05 Reine des Bois is still fantastically young and dense, showing blackberry, cassis, graphite, roasted herbs and smoke on the nose. There are hints of underlying garrigue and southern Rhône typicity and the wine sports serious depth and richness, all with edgy, focused energy. Full bodied, concentrated, balanced and very long, this needs another 5 to 7 years and then should drink beautifully over the following 20. Quickly becoming my favorite vintage from this producer.