Domaine de La Vieille Julienne : Réservé 2017

The Réservé is sourced from low-yielding vines, the fruit vinified without extraction with just one punch-down each day. It has beautifully floral notes of violets, strawberries and raspberries, plus some high-toned herbal elements. There's good concentration of red berry fruit coulis in the mouth—it's always a deeply lush and opulent cuvée, and the 2017 has generosity but also tension and precision. A lovely tannic frame and a mineral undertow provide support for the necessarily high alcohol, a product of the very ripe, Grenache-based style. A very good year for this cuvée.

Inky ruby. Expansive dark berry preserve, cherry liqueur, licorice and potpourri aromas are complemented by an exotic spice flourish and a suggestion of smoky minerality. Broad and fleshy in the mouth, offering deeply concentrated black raspberry, boysenberry and bitter cherry flavors, along with five-spice powder and floral pastille nuances. Slowly firms up with air and finishes with superb clarity, building tannins and outstanding, floral-driven persistence.

The bouquet is on the floral side, with wild cherries, licorice, spice, stone, earth and herbs to complicate matters. Full-bodied, round, rich and juicy, with a gorgeous sense of purity, concentration and energy, the wine is long, deep and tannic. You should lay this down for 7-8 years before pulling a cork. The wine is usually made from 90% Grenache, 5% Syrah and 5% Counoise. If this seems like your thing, grab a few bottles.

My wine of the vintage is the 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Reserve, which is in the same league as the other greats from this estate including the 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, and 2016. Revealing a deep purple color as well as a massive bouquet of crème de cassis, violets, graphite, black licorice, and hints of peppery garrigue, it hits the palate with a huge array of fruit, full-bodied richness, no hard edges, and enough sweet tannins to warrant another 5–7 years of bottle age. Based entirely on very old-vine Grenache from sandy soils just across the street from the domaine (Trois Source has a large portion of its blend from a similar terroir), brought up all in foudre, it’s a singular, heavenly wine from Jean-Paul Daumen that’s going to go down as one of the greats from Châteauneuf du Pape.