1999 Domaine Pierre Usseglio, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, de Mon Aieul

Deep medium ruby. Bright but rather sauvage aromas of black fruits, roasted meat, and gingerbread. Large-scaled, thick and seamless, with uncanny density for the year. Comes across as even fresher than the normale, although the flavors of currant, bitter chocolate, licorice, leather and game are a bit more rustic. Solidly structured but the tannins are quite fine. Finishes with terrific length of red fruit and game flavor. This is one special cuvee that not made in barriques; in fact, this spends a few months less in foudres than most of the Usseglios' basic bottling, as it's bottled in one go at the same time as the first mise of the regular wine.

The 1999 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de Mon Aieul was only the second vintage of this cuvée to be made. A foudre-aged blend of fruit (almost exclusively Grenache) from the lieux-dits of la Guigasse and les Serres, it's bricking in hue, offering up scents of sous-bois, leather and roasted meat. Still full-bodied and richly tannic, this impressive wine should be consumed over the next couple of years, before the fruit fades further.