2005 Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Réserve

"we get less color up here in the north of the appellation because of all the sand, but we get great perfume," winemaker Bruno Gaspard told me when I commented on the light hue but explosive bouquet of his wines. "The 2006 season featured huge diurnal shifts: the nights were really cool and the vines slept well-unlike 2003, when the nights seemed as hot as the days, and the vines never slept. Neither did we!" The new crop of wines reminds Gaspard of 2004: "Still extremely elegant but with more body. In 2005 everything is huge: body, fruit, tannins. These need to be forgotten in the cellar." He also told me that he thinks that "2004 and 2006 are vintages that express terroir more clearly than does 2005," which he notes is hardly a criticism of '05.

Bruno Gaspard's latest vintage continues an impressive winning streak, and conditions in both 2004 and 2005 conspired with the house style of Clos du Caillou to produce a batch of sweet, suave wines. There's no crime in drinking these wines early, but they have proven that they have the stuffing to improve with age. Speaking of cellaring, Gaspard says "I really, really like 2004. The wines will go for a very long time because of their great balance. "And 2005?"The best wines I have ever made, no doubt. The purity and balance are remarkable. They are wines I never had to worry about. "