Clos des Papes, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rouge 2017

One of the strongest wines in the vintage is the 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape from Vincent Avril. This beauty has everything you could ask for. As with the 2018, the blend is heavily shifted toward Mourvèdre, and it offers a mammoth bouquet of black cherries, graphite, cured meats, Asian spices, and assorted garrigue-like nuances. Deep, full-bodied, and concentrated, it stays straight and focused on the palate (whereas the 2016 is more expansive and voluptuous), with a stacked mid-palate, ripe, silky tannins, and fabulous length. You’re going to want bottles of this in the cellar, and comparing the 2007, 2010, 2016, and 2017 over the coming two decades is going to be a treat.

Marked by severe coulure on the Grenache—resulting in an unusually high proportion of Mourvèdre in the blend—and shaped by a hot, dry growing season, the 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Clos des Papes unfurls from the glass with a brooding bouquet of tobacco leaf, licorice, dark fruits, plum and floral accents, with a subtle reductive thread woven throughout. Full-bodied, dense and structured, it's elegantly muscular, with a spice-driven complexity, a deeply layered core of dark fruit and a tannic frame of exceptional precision. It's a brooding, long-lived wine that will reward the patient.

Mixing 45% Mourvèdre with 45% Grenache and the remainder split between Syrah, Counoise, Muscardin and Vaccarèse, the 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape was cropped at a mere 16 hl/ha. Pronounced black plum, dried herbs, peppery features and gentle cocoa come alive, complemented by a beguiling minty streak. Full-bodied and framed around a firm tannic core, the complex 2017 demands at least five more years to start showing its full potential.