2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Reine Bois

The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape La Reine des Bois is a monumental effort. Packed and dense, full-bodied and richly tannic, it's completely absorbed the 30% oak. It's 80% Grenache, older vines from the lieux-dits of La Crau and La Nerthe. Blueberries, licorice and Mexican chocolate are carried on a velvety mouthfeel through an indelibly long finish. It's a tour de force, so young, but so tempting. Tasted three times, with consistent notes.

The inky colored 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Reine des Bois is a match for the otherworldly 2001 and is a magical wine that couldn’t be any better. Based on 75% Grenache and the balance Mourvèdre, Syrah, Vaccarèse, and Counoise, raised in tank and neutral barrels, its inky black color is followed by an awesome perfume of blackberries, smoked earth/charcoal, licorice, graphite, and garrigue. Deep, full-bodied, with a huge mid-palate, a seamless texture, and serious tannins, it has the purity as well as depth that makes this vintage so compelling. This modern-day legend needs 3-4 years of cellaring and is capable of lasting for 15-20 years. This estate has unquestionably landed on its feet after the passing of Christophe Delorme in 2015, and you’ll have to go back to 2001 to find wines at the same level as these 2016s.

Deep vivid ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet displays ripe red and blue fruit preserve, incense, garrigue and cola aromas complicated by a vibrant mineral quality that gains strength as the wine opens up. Sweet, seamless and broad in the mouth, offering impressively concentrated Chambord, boysenberry, floral pastille and spicecake flavors that show superb clarity and lift. The blue fruit and floral notes power a strikingly long, spicy finish that's shaped by rounded, even tannins. This wine's marriage of heft to finesse is really impressive.