The 2015 Châteauneuf-Du-Pape Cuvée Réservée is a beautiful, classic wine from the Feraud family that offers powerful notes of blackcurrants, peppered meat, garrigue, and that classic Pégau spice that's hard to find outside of this iconic estate. Possessing a deep ruby/plum color, beautiful complexity, full-bodied richness, and firm tannin, it has closed up slightly since I tasted it from barrel and is going to need 6-12 months of bottle age to bounce back, but this is a concentrated, powerful vintage for this estate that reminds me a slightly improved 2005. I’ve included the Château Pégau and the Selection Laurence Feraud here as well as the normal Domaine du Pégau releases. Looking at the vintages reviewed here, I was only able to taste the 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée from the 2017 vintage, so I’m not sure if there will be a Cuvée Da Capo, although I would be surprised not to see one, given the quality of the vintage. The two 2016s are still in foudre and barrel, but this is an undeniably great vintage for this estate, and the wines will surpass what was achieved in 2015, which are great wines in their own right. The 2015s showed beautifully from bottle, and this is a vintage compared to 2010 by Laurence, although I don’t completely share that belief. There’s a firmness in the 2015s that’s nor far off the 2005s, but both the Cuvée Réservée and Cuvée Da Capo are incredibly concentrated and will be very long lived. There are two vintages of the Cuvée Laurence reviewed as well, and as I’ve written in the past, this is the same wine as the Cuvée Réservée only aged longer, which normally gives the wine a more evolved, rounded style. In short, this is an undeniable reference point for traditionally made Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and life is too short not to drink copious quantities of Pégau!

Now that it has been in bottle a while, the 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee is looking even better than I projected based on last year's prebottling sample. It's all violets, cherries, subtle allspice and clove and traditional garrigue notes of lavender and thyme. Full-bodied and rich, it's crazy complex, adding hints of tar and black olives on the long, silky finish. It should evolve beautifully over the next two decades.

Bosquets, Coteau de Saint Jean, La Crau, Escondudes, Grand Pierre, Pignan (north), Solitude. pH 3.28, TA 3.14 g/l. 1% Bourboulenc, 1% Cinsault, 1% Clairette, 1% Counoise, 80% Grenache, 4% Mourvèdre, 1% Muscardin, 1% Picardan, 1% Picpoul Blanc, 1% Roussanne, 6% Syrah, 1% Terret Noir, 1% Vaccarèse. Whole bunch. Vinified in cement tank. Aged in foudre. Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Heady and ripe. Lots of black cherry fruit and then rather dry tannins on the end. Just a slight lack of density on the mid palate but there is certainly life here. (JR)