Wine Spectator: Very enticing, with roasted herb, olive and spice notes flittering in front of darker pastis, blackberry paste and briar notes. The long, grippy finish is iron-driven, with a ...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: A more long-term effort is the 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape L'Envol (70% Mourvedre and 30% Grenache, aged in two- to three-year-old small barriques). A complex nose of sauteed mus...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Bright ruby-red. A sexy, highly perfumed bouquet displays fresh red berries, potpourri and white pepper, with hints of allspice and anise adding complexity. Spicy and alluring...

About this Wine: This cuvee is called Combe des Fous (Hill of Fools).  This cuvee is from a specific parcel on Crau that long ago was considered too difficult to work, but the Maurels' gr...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Deep ruby. Ripe cherry, spicecake, garrigue and an exotic hint of flowers on the intensely perfumed nose. Sappy and fresh as well as dense, offering intense raspberry and ch...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Opaque ruby. A pungent, exotically perfumed bouquet displays blackcurrant, anise and smoky Indian spices, along with a sexy floral overtone. Sappy, penetrating dark berry flav...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Bright ruby. High-pitched red berry and floral aromas show very good intensity and a sexy spicecake nuance. Juicy, penetrating and seamless, offering vibrant raspberry and c...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: There were no problems with the opaque ruby/purple-tinged 2010 Chateauneuf du Pape, which had just been bottled. This exotic red boasts notes of black truffles, roasted meats,...

About this Wine: It is Courbis' most dramatic wine, showing saturated black-purple in color with layers of chewy, ripe, sweet fruit with black olive and berry, tar and mineral notes. It ...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Tasted from two different foudres; #1: Sexy, floral-accented aromas and flavors of blueberry and candied cherry. Spicy and energetic, with good clarity and lift. #2: Deeper...

Wine Spectator: Beautiful, silky Châteauneuf terroir aromas: leather, game, truffles, plum, dried herbs, lead pencil. It all swirls around in the palate, a deeply satisfying blend that surpri...

Wine Spectator: Large-scaled but poised, pure and driven, with beautiful mocha and dark linzer torte aromas giving way to lush blueberry, plum and boysenberry compote notes. The finish lets g...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2010 Chateauneuf du Pape St.-Georges possesses magnificent fruit in addition to a skyscraper-like mouthfeel, majestic richness, a layered texture, phenomenal purity and a ...

About this Wine: While Michel Chapoutier produces some of the world's greatest wines from single parcels of old vines spread throughout the northern and southern Rhone (see my ecstatic rev...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2010 Hermitage is clearly the biggest, richest and most ageworthy wine of this trio. It boasts a dense purple color along with notes of creme de cassis, smoked herbs, lico...

Wine Spectator: This is gorgeous, with wood spice and tobacco notes leading the way for a massive core of black Mission fig and warm currant preserve flavors. This has the opulent fruit of th...

Wine Spectator: A lush, opulent style, with captivating blackberry sauce, plum preserves and linzer torte notes draped over dense but polished tannins. Lots of dark licorice, cinnamon and roa...

Wine Spectator: Dense but polished, with a great, creamy mouthfeel to the fig, black licorice, plum and currant preserve flavors, all followed by a very racy graphite edge on the long, intens...

Wine Spectator: Lovely violet, white pepper, black cherry and roasted tobacco aromas and flavors are supported by a mouthwatering chalky edge that cuts through the perfumy finish. Very nicely...