A wine that blew me away, and the best bottle of this I've tasted, the 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape Combe des Fous gave up exotic and intense aromas and flavors of ground pepper, kirsch liqueur, incense, white chocolate and crushed flowers. About as seamless and sexy as they come, this extraordinary Chateauneuf boasts incredible concentration, no hard edges and insane length on the finish. Much more forward and open than the 2010, drink it over the coming 10 to 15 years. Jeb Dunnuck

The 2010 Clos Saint Jean Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Combe des Fous is an utterly brilliant wine! A blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, and 10% Vaccarese, it offers an extraordinary bouquet of spring flowers, sappy garrigue, ground pepper, and searing minerality that is anchored by a core of sweet red and black fruits. More elegant and seamless than the Deus-Ex Machina, it has full-bodied power, layers of texture, and a blockbuster finish that highlights masses of silky tannin. Thrilling stuff and my favorite vintage of the cuvee to date, it deserves 3-4 years of bottle age, and will evolve for 2+ decades.

NB vintage. Silky and round on the nose. Juicy and with a glossy overlay, over some very firm fruit in fact. They went lightly on the extraction in 2010 (compared with 2011 and 2008). (JR)