2016 Châteaneuf-du-Pape Charles Giraud Rouge Famille Isabel Ferrando (St. Prefert)

Cask sample. Chocolate, black cherry, fragrant spice mix - attractive and outgoing flavour profile, though the palate has firm tannin and only medium persistence. Worth giving a few years to allow development. (RH) Drink 2020-2036 .

Fresh, lifted violets and blueberries with a touch of liquorice on the nose. Medium to full-bodied in the mouth, concentrated juice that is very precisely tailored. Everything is in the right proportion: acidity, fruit, ripe tannin. It's big but not massive, and very well balanced. A consistently strong performer, this will be a really good wine, generous in fruit but structured. Drinking Window 2020 - 2032.

There's a generous serving of ripe raspberry and boysenberry fruit on offer. This has plenty of upfront appeal and a juicy, flavor-soaked finish. Drink now, but even better in a year or two.

A perfect wine that's up with the top handful of wines in this incredible vintage, the 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Collection Charles Giraud (60/40 Grenache and Mourvèdre) boasts a sensational nose of currants, cured meats, kirsch, exotic spices, and sandalwood. Deep, full-bodied and powerful, yet with an incredible sense of elegance and purity, it just glides across the palate and, despite its awesome intensity, it never seems heavy or over the top. Give it 2-3 years, and it will keep for two decades or more. 2021 - 2041 .

The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Collection Charles Giraud is a 60-40 blend of Grenache and Mourvèdre, fermented with all the stems. There's a hint of cocoa, but raspberries and strawberries are the dominant fruit flavors in this lively, zesty wine. Trace notes of mint, lavender and tea leaf add complexity. Full-bodied and velvety in texture, it's intensely concentrated and rich yet not overly heavy or overripe (it weighs in at 15.5% alcohol), with a lingering, elegant finish. It's a tour de force that should age for two decades or more, and it will be interesting to see how it compares to the perfect 2010 after it's had a few years in bottle. 2020 - 2040 .

Intensely concentrated, yet light on its feet, this is all about the purity of fruit, sensuous, sexy, velvet textures, and expansive layers of fruit in the finish that must last close to 60 seconds. There is a depth of flavor that invites your palate to explore the wine again and again looking for what else might happen! The wine was made blending 60% old vine Grenache with 40% Mourvedre.

Vivid glistening violet. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes mineral-tinged red and blue fruit preserves, incense and exotic spices, and a sexy floral nuance gains power as the wine opens up. Fleshy, seamless, appealingly sweet and energetic on the palate, offering densely packed, finely detailed raspberry, boysenberry, lavender and candied licorice flavors braced by a core of juicy acidity. Suggestions of five-spice powder and smoked meat appear on the penetrating finish, which shows outstanding clarity, finely wrought tannins and endless red fruit and floral notes.

This has a large core of well-steeped plum, blackberry puree and warm cassis flavors, inlaid liberally with ganache, graphite and Turkish coffee notes. There's a wide swath of tobacco and roasted alder detail through the finish, matched by racy acidity for balancing focus. This is very deep and very long, capturing the intense yet fresh fruit feel of the vintage to a T. Best from 2020 through 2040. From France.-J.M.