2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Clos des Papes

Lurid ruby. A complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes raspberry liqueur, cherry compote, exotic spices and candied lavender. Juicy, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering impressively concentrated and sharply delineated flavors of sappy red fruits, succulent herbs, spicecake and candied flowers that spread out steadily on the back half. Densely packed but also lithe in character, finishing with slow-building tannins that shape the exuberant red fruit on the extremely long, sappy and penetrating finish. (JR)

Lurid ruby. A complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes raspberry liqueur, cherry compote, exotic spices and candied lavender. Juicy, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering impressively concentrated and sharply delineated flavors of sappy red fruits, succulent herbs, spicecake and candied flowers that spread out steadily on the back half. Densely packed but also lithe in character, finishing with slow-building tannins that shape the exuberant red fruit on the extremely long, sappy and penetrating finish.

Closed nose, very much in recess at present, but with plenty of brooding black fruit on the palate. Chocolate, aniseed, leathery, meaty. Impressive length, and well proportioned, yet there is much less complexity and scope than it is bound to be capable of.