I loved the 2009 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Quartz. This beauty tastes like the essence of Châteauneuf du Pape with its massive, almost over-the-top aromas and flavors of kirsch, new saddle leather, garrigue, and spicy incense. This is a sunny, incredibly Provençal, complex, full-bodied effort that’s drinking at point today, so while it certainly has another decade of life, there’s no need to delay gratification.

The 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Quartz continues to drink well, as it has almost from the start. Black cherries and olives mingle easily on the nose and palate, picking up hints of leather and Asian five spice powder on the finish. Still full-bodied and silky-textured, this elegant wine should be drunk now and over the next few years. - Joe Czerwinski

Bright crimson. Warm, comforting fruit soup nose with masses of alcohol on the finish but pretty polished tannins. Very silky and alluring. This is the sort of wine that I feel nowhere else on earth can make. Perhaps not one of the longest living but surely one of the most appealing. 17.5/20