2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Trois Sources Vieille Julienne

The 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Trois Sources is straight-up sensational and isn't far off the more expensive Reserve cuvée in style and quality. Huge notes of blackcurrants, black raspberries, crushed violets, licorice, and incredible minerality, as well as a smoking floral quality, all soar from the glass of this full-bodied, seamless, pure wine that readers should snatch up. With good acidity, awesome purity, and a great, great finish, it's an incredible wine any way you look at it. Drink it anytime over the coming two decades or more. Now - 2038.

Deeply colored, the wine offers licorice, black cherry, plum and kirsch, with hints of fig, earth, herbs and spice. Exciting to taste the wine is rich, dense, opulent and fresh. The fruit is on the top spectrum of ripe, and yet it still holds freshness and vigor. The finish holds your interest and the fruit. This is the best vintage for Les Trois Sources yet. The wine was made from 60% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Cinsault and a myriad of various other allowable varieties.

Deep ruby. Pungent, mineral-accented cherry, black raspberry, licorice and garrigue scents, plus a hint of candied flowers in the background. Deep and alluringly sweet, offering cherry compote, lavender, star anise and cola flavors that are given frame and spine by a core of juicy acidity. Finishes extremely long, spicy and precise, with building tannins and a powerful whiplash of spice-laced red fruit liqueur.

A lush, ripe style, with açaí berry, blueberry and plum reduction notes giving this a slightly exotic bent, while singed bay leaf, worn leather and warm tar accents keep this grounded in a slightly old-school way. Displays ample heft, yet energy ripples through the finish, accompanied by lingering garrigue and tobacco echoes. Strong wine. Best from 2022 through 2040.