For reports and full tasting notes, go toTim Atkin MW's website.

Bright ruby. Intensely perfumed aromas of fresh red and blue fruits, potpourri and incense gain vivacity from a smoky mineral nuance. Offers deeply concentrated blueberry, black raspberry, spicecake and floral pastille flavors, while suggestions of candied licorice and white pepper emerge on the back half. Finishes on a suave, alluringly sweet note of red fruit liqueur, featuring slowly emerging tannins and outstanding vivacity and focus.

Vieilles Vignes means just that, the majority of the fruit from vines planted in 1920 and 1965. Pale red hue with a hint of evolution. The wine is busy and fresh on the nose with menthol-eucalyptus moving to herbal notes and a dash of cassis. The palate is ripe but perfectly pitched with mellow tannins, a stony, vinous edge and complexity as it unfolds.

One of the more elegant and streamlined examples of this cuvée I've tasted, the 2014 Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Vieilles Vignes has terrific purity as well as classic notes of black raspberries, Provençal spice, licorice and leather. Medium to full-bodied and nicely concentrated, it offers tons of charm and I suspect it will drink nicely right on release (which isn't the norm for this cuvée).

Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Gamey nose. Then rather polished and well mannered. Just a little taut and astringent on the end. Certainly not earthy! (JR)