The 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape Roussanne Vieilles Vignes is nearly perfect. I drank three bottles of this at La Beaugraviere restaurant during my trip to the Rhone Valley and wish I had had the fortitude to drink even more. Probably the most thrilling dry white I have tasted in the last year it possesses great intensity and unctuosity yet extraordinary elegance with a viscous nose of honeyed caramel pineapple and apricots. Beautifully proportioned and full of mineral nuances this is a tour de force in winemaking.

Beautifully balanced. Thick and rich a ripe full-bodied Châteauneuf that delivers a lot of dried fruit with dried apricot cream raisins and some honey. Yet it is bone dry on the finish just teasing you with its lush aromas. Drink now through 2007. 415 cases made.