2018 Chateauneuf du Pape Secret de Sabon

While the 2018 Châteauneuf Du Pape Le Secret Des Sabon isn’t going to match the 2016 and 2017, it’s nevertheless a beautiful wine that’s a candidate for the wine of the vintage. A fabulous perfume of black raspberry and cassis fruits as well as notes of peppery garrigue, smoked game, and Asian spices flow to a full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, ripe, yet also seamless 2018 that has more depth, richness, and length than just about every other wine in the vintage. A field blend of mostly Grenache brought up in foudre, this sensational Châteauneuf du Pape can be enjoyed anytime over the coming 15 years or more.

Almost entirely Grenache from two old-vine parcels that include more sand than the domaine's other plots, the 2018 Chateauneuf du Pape le Secret de Sabon is intoxicating just to smell—not because of the alcohol levels, but because of the enveloping aromas that combine rose petals and lavender with apricots and black cherries and drizzles them all with wisps of dark chocolate and coffee. It's full-bodied but paradoxically light in feel, with silky, gossamer-like tannins that give the wine a pillowy shape and feel on the palate, then linger elegantly on the long finish.