Pierre Henri Morel, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Lieu Dit Pignan 2015

The 2015 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Lieu Dit Pignan is 100% Grenache from a lieu-dit that lies just next to Rayas, in the center of the appellation. It's a classic, structured 2015 that offers beautiful notes of blackberries, plums, licorice and roasted garrigue. Full-bodied, concentrated and structured, with enough tannin to warrant short-term cellaring, it's going to have 15-20 years of overall longevity. It’s unquestionably one of the top wines in the vintage.

The 100% Grenache 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Lieu Dit Pignan comes from a site renowned for its sandy soils and is matured in used 600-liter demi-muids. It reveals a beguiling nose of baking spices, dusty earth, garrigue and red raspberries. This full-bodied, plush wine is also amazingly fresh, with almost painful concentration and intensity that powers through the mocha and caramel-tinged finish. Ideally, give it a few years in the cellar and drink it over the next decade.

(aged in neutral demi-muids) Brilliant ruby. Expressive red fruit, potpourri and smoky mineral scents show impressive definition and pick up a suggestion of incense with aeration. Stains the palate with sweet, sharply defined raspberry, spicecake and lavender pastille flavors energized by juicy acidity. Densely packed but lively as well, finishing with excellent clarity, sneaky tannins and lingering red fruit and mineral flourishes.