One of the more youthful and fresh wines in the vintage today is the 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Marie Beurrier. Sporting a healthy ruby, mostly opaque color, it offers fabulous notes of Provencal herbs, spice, white pepper, kirsch and assorted Grenache-dominated fruit characteristics in a medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, rich and lengthy profile. There's still a fair kick of tannin here, but it has a core of sweet fruit and is a joy to drink. It will easily drink well for another decade.

Raspberry and cherry on the nose, with a complicating note of licorice. Showing more depth and power but a tad less finesse than last year, with dusty tannins adding grip. Finishes on a brighter red fruit note, with very good lift and precision.

Wine Advocate October, 2011 The 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Marie Beurrier reveals a Burgundian-like character of sassafras, forest floor, earth and mushrooms intermixed with notions of Asian soy and garrigue.

The 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape Marie Beurrier (probably) offers aromas of Asian soy, balsam wood, underbrush, garrigue, pepper and black cherries. It is a dark ruby-hued, medium-bodied, spicy, earthy effort. Henri Bonneau, who is now 70 years of age, continues to make Chateauneuf du Pape the way it was made 50-100 years ago ... long cask aging in old barrels and bottling it, as he says jokingly, “when I need money.” A visit to these cellars is always one of my most rewarding of the year. The barrels and foudres that will probably be used in the Cuvee Marie Beurrier all have the letter “G” on them and everything with Reserve des Celestins potential has the letter “P” on it. Bonneau went through a litany of the issues that confronted the 2009 vintage, particularly the drought that affected much of the Grenache planted in many of Chateauneuf du Pape’s terroirs, and he reminded me that he had predicted it would be a problem when I saw him last year. Bonneau continues to claim the 2007s are too showy and flamboyant to ever develop into a great, long-lived vintage. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173