2017 Chateauneuf du Pape le Grand Pin

Cut from the same cloth, the 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Le Grand Pin has an incredibly Provençal bouquet of spiced red fruits, dried flowers, cedary spice, and herbes de Provence. Showing the vintage’s sunny, sexy profile, it’s medium to full-bodied, has sweet tannins, no hard edges, and a great, great finish. With lots of stem influence, give bottles 2-3 years in a cold cellar and enjoy over the following 10-15 years. This is another brilliant wine from this label that readers will be thrilled to have in the cellar. The personal label of importer Peter Weygandt, with the wines made by Baptiste Grangeon of Domain de Cristia, Chapelle Saint Theodoric focuses on 100% Grenache from two lieux-dits, Le Grand Pin and La Guigasse. The wines are not destemmed and brought up all in old barrels, and these are classic, gorgeous wines. As I’ve written in the past, they come closest in my mind to Rayas as anything else out there. Both 2018 and 2019 are terrific vintages here, with the 2018s offering more upfront charm and the 2019s going to reward bottle age.

The 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Le Grand Pin is 100% whole-cluster Grenache from the sandy soils of the Pignan lieu-dit, adjacent to Rayas. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion, but I thought I detected a pine-like edge to the cherry-and-herb aromas. There's a lacy delicacy to this full-bodied wine's texture, supple, refined and elegant, nearly ethereal, yet with great persistence on the finish, folding in hints of Mexican chocolate and complex spice notes of coriander, star anise and clove.

100% Grenache. Leather and iodine on the nose. The palate is dominated by high alcohol, sticky tannins and sharp acidity. None of it integrates. Then the finish has an odd vegetal taste to it. Unpleasurable. (RH)