Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate spent 14 months in 100% new barrels. It is a rich, textured wine endowed with exquisite finesse and class in its dark black fruit, grilled h...

Wine Spectator: A fruit bomb, this packs cherry jam, blackberry and spice flavors into a round, juicy frame. Light tannins bolster the finish, which echoes fruit, with cherry and raspberry li...

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...

Burghound: A notably more elegant nose of ripe red and black cherry aromas also reflects subtle mineral nuances that continue onto the refined and mineral-driven middle weight flavors th...

Wine Spectator: A tight, firmly structured '09, sporting a narrow range of cherry, black currant, spice and mineral flavors. This is dense and fresh, with oak spice lingering on the finish. B...

Wine Spectator: A rich, opulent style, delivering ripe black cherry, mineral and oak spice flavors. This is supple and inviting, with firm, well-integrated tannins for structure. Spice and li...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Palish yellow. Musky peach and clove oil on the nose. Creamy, rich and stuffed with stone fruit and spice flavors. In a very ripe, Meursault-like style but with enough lemo...

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...

Wine Spectator: Taut and focused, this offers a cascade of cinnamon, clove, cherry, raspberry and guava flavors, coming together harmoniously against refined tannins. The finish glides easily...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin Petite Chapelle is the most complete of the 1ers from Gevrey. A striking, expressive bouquet melds into layers of dark fruit that caress the palate ...

Burghound: This is much more elegant and more complex as well with a lightly spiced red pinot fruit and earth-suffused nose that complements the silky-textured middle weight flavors that...

Wine Spectator: A little stern on the nose, but boasting ripe, juicy raspberry and spicy cherry on the palate. This is very supple and lively, with power and a lingering aftertaste of spice a...

Wine Spectator: This really stands apart from the crowd, with searingly intense minerality cutting through a massive core of pastis, plum sauce and fig paste. Gorgeous violet and spice notes ...

Wine Spectator: Dark and densely packed, yet terrifically racy, with plum sauce, pastis and crushed blackberry fruit wound with charcoal and roasted tobacco leaf notes, but carried by rivetin...

Wine Spectator: Offers a grippy edge from the start, with briar, pepper and smoldering tobacco notes framing the core of dark plum, fig sauce and blackberry fruit. The long, structured finish...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2009 Barbera d'Asti Bricco dell'Uccellone is totally polished and refined from start to finish. Floral notes meld into clean, mineral-infused fruit as this restrained, bea...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2009 Barbera d'Asti Ai Suma is wonderfully perfumed, fresh and seductive. Roses, violets, plums, dark cherries and minerals are some of the aromas and flavors that flow fr...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: (42% grenache, 33% syrah and 25% mourvedre, raised in 50% new oak): Vivid ruby. Explosive aromas of black raspberry, boysenberry, incense and star anise, with a hint of vani...

Burghound: A more deeply pitched red and blue pinot fruit nose that also reflects subtle earth and sauvage hints. There is excellent detail to the sleekly muscular and firm medium-bodied...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2009 Syrah caresses the palate with generous blueberries, blackberries and French oak. There isn't much varietal character or nuance here, instead the wine impresses for i...