2018 Condrieu La Doriane Guigal

This is a very fresh and attractively rich wine, as always, but the forward nature of the vintage has played right to its strengths. The nose is so complex with apricot custard and brulée, as well as roasted hazelnuts and all manner of baking spices. Some mangoes and peaches, too. The texture is so supple, rich and beautifully silky, really bathed in flavor, and already drinking wonderfully. So long, with grilled hazelnuts that rise very late on the back-palate horizon. Drink or hold.

Light, green-tinged yellow. A hugely perfumed bouquet evokes ripe orchard and pit fruit liqueur, honey, vanilla, exotic flowers and smoky minerals, along with emerging spiciness. Broad and fleshy but shockingly lively as well, offering palate-coating orchard and pit fruit flavors that take on energizing spiciness through the mid-palate. The honey and mineral note reverberate on an extremely long, smooth finish that leaves a refreshingly bitter orange zest note behind.

The 2018 Condrieu la Doriane was barrel fermented in 100% new oak. Yes, it's toasty as a result, but it's loaded with grilled stone fruit and doesn't seem overdone, just rich, plush, full-bodied and long on the powerful finish. It's another top-notch effort from the appellation's leading (volume) producer.

An inviting, bold, unctuous style, with lots of creamed peach, apricot and quince flavors that form a broad swath. Notes of ginger and warm brioche add more cushion on the finish. Drink now through 2023