2018 Chapelle Saint Theodoric Chateauneuf-du-Pape la Guigasse

Tasted from a one-year-old barrel, the 2018 Chateauneuf du Pape La Guigasse looks capable of rivaling (surpassing?) the 2016. Lovely garrigue-like nuances accent perfectly ripe black cherries in this full-bodied, silky, tremendously long effort. It’s just a wonderful, sexy beast of a Grenache grown in sandy soils.

These wines are made and looked after by Baptiste Grangeon of Domaine de Cristia. Drawn from specific parcels of Grenache planted on sandy soils, they’re aged in demi-muids for two years or more, then bottled unfixed and unfiltered for the American importer, Peter Weygandt. To my tastes, they’re some of the most exciting cuvées I review each year, both for the quality of the wines and the individual vineyard expressions. Low crops in 2017 and 2018 mean there will be even less of these than usual, approximately 3,000–5,000 bottles of each.