1998 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Emmanuel Reynaud describes the '99 vintage as more sauvage while '98 offers great complexity of fruit. Reynaud adds that the '98 Rayas, with its richness of fruit and enticing fruit/acid balance, is easy to taste now. But he considers 1999 to be more serious and perhaps longer-lived. "It a year of syrah," he told me, "and we can't really talk about this wine for 10 or 15 years." Yields at this fabled domain remain as low as ever, according to Reynaud: just 15 hectoliters per hectare for the '99 Chateauneuf du Pape, and 22 in '98. In '99, the cinsault was picked ten days later than usual at the highest grape sugars yet recorded at this estate, and the syrah was similarly very successful. I also tasted Reynaud's wines from his Domaine des Tours in Vacqueyras. Among the standouts was an outsized 1998 Cotes du Rhone Grande Reserve with port-like ripeness, creamy fruit and huge volume (this is the same wine as the 1998 Vacqueyras Reserve previously shipped to the U.S.). Most of this cuvee was refused by the authorities, who felt it was too oxidized, but fans of sheer size and roasted red fruits should track down a bottle or two of this big guy.

Emmanuel Reynaud has quickly shown himself to be a worthy caretaker of this fabled estate's superb holdings and a flexible, non-interventionist vinifier. After making one of the Chateauneuf appellation's most satisfying '97s, he has followed up with a very strong set of '98s, including a potentially outstanding Chateau Rayas and an explosive Fonsallette syrah. Interestingly, in marked contrast to some of his colleagues, Reynaud describes the '98 Rayas as a tannic vin de garde while he considers the '95 to be a fruit-driven wine for earlier drinking.