Wine Spectator: Super-intense and full-throttled, elegant and stylish. Dark amber in color and rich in complexity, this '83 coats your mouth with butterscotch, dried apricot, fig and spice fl...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: There is one barrel of the Sine Qua Non cuvee, the 2001 Vin de Paille Inamorata, which spent 42 months in oak, resulting in 350 grams per liter of residual sugar, and a whoppi...

About this Wine: 92.5% Merlot, 7.2% Cabernet Franc, 0.3% Malbec

Wine Enthusiast: The 2008 vintage presented challenges for Cabernet Sauvignon, but this Cabernet Franc-based blend succeeds wildly. It's bone dry, tannic and enormously complex, with flavors o...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Inky ruby. Pungent, exotically perfumed aromas of dark berry compote, Asian spices and garrigue, with bright minerality adding vivacity. Powerful and deeply concentrated but a...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: (70% mourvedre and 10% each of grenache, counoise and syrah, all raised in foudre): Glass-staining purple. Hypnotic bouquet of black and blue fruits, potpourri and exotic sp...

Wine Spectator: A prodigious effort, dark, rich and intense,remarkably youthful and vibrant, with penetrating chocolate, black cherry, violet, plum and currant flavors that are tightly focuse...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: As I reported last year, the black/purple-tinged 2009 Cote Rotie La Landonne is an extraordinary effort. Made in a more open-knit, exuberant, flamboyant style, it possesses ma...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: Pure perfection, the 2010 Hermitage reminds Jean-Louis Chave of their 1990. It appears to be a richer, fresher example of what I remember the 1990 tasting like in 1992. The wi...

Wine Spectator: A tremendous effort, dark, ripe, rich, deeply concentrated, with layers of thick currant, black cherry, wild berry, spice, anise and toasty oak, finishing with a long, complex...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Bright ruby. A drop-dead, room-filling bouquet evokes black raspberry liqueur, incense, anise and lavender, with smoke and herb overtones. Sappy and penetrating, offering de...

About this Wine: As I have written many times, all of these wines are produced from rigidly cultivated, bio-dynamically managed vineyards. That has been the rule since Michel Chapoutier fi...

Wine Spectator: Ultraconcentrated, with layers and layers of fruit and superfine tannins. Plenty of fruit, mineral and meat character. Full-bodied yet refined and classy, it coats your palate...

Wine Spectator: A bit of a brute, with a very chewy bittersweet ganache, tobacco and roasted fig core splayed open right now by a dagger of roasted apple wood, allspice and cedar. Long and de...

Wine Spectator: Liquid cashmere. Stupendous St.-Emilion. Dark ruby color. Wonderful aromas of blackberries, preserved cherries, Indian spices and violets. Full-bodied, with fabulously polishe...

Wine Spectator: ...sheer, ripe, plush, enormous flavors of currant, cassis, chocolate, berry and cherry. Nearing perfection...

John Gilman: The 2010 Chambertin Clos de Beze from Maison Drouhin is simply a profound bottle in the making. The brilliant nose erupts in a black fruity melange of cassis, plums, raw cocoa...

Wine Spectator: Firm and intense, with gripping tannins wrapped around dark berry, black licorice, graphite, cedar and tar. Slow to unfold but does so impressively, gaining strength, depth an...

Wine Spectator: Approaching perfection. Wonderful perfumed and floral aromas, with rich cassis, blackberry and wild berry fruit scents. On the palate those flavors are intense and vibrant, cr...

Wine Spectator: What a nose of pressed flowers and full-throttle dried fruits. Full-bodied, with intense and very ripe fruit that has undertones of dried fruit, raisin and grilled meat. Chewy...