2007 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

There will be only a single Chateauneuf bottled from 2008, Thierry Usseglio told me in November. "If the quality isn't there we can't risk the wines' reputation or ours by acting like we were able to make something that we couldn't," he explained. "The 2007s are showing a lot right now and are extremely seductive," he added, "but they have the depth to age. What makes them unique is that they show power without the hardness that is usually associated with masculine wines. They may not live as long as the 2005s but they will probably provide more pleasure for a longer period of time than the more serious '05s, which are no fun now and won't be for a while."

"Two thousand seven is a lot like 2001 in the sense of its concentration and sweetness, but the tannins are more enrobed so the fruit will come forward sooner," Thierry Usseglio told me. "They're like Catherine Deneuve, with great elegance but very sexy. " Two thousand six, on the other hand, is about almost immediate pleasure: "easy to drink when young, balanced, with lots of fruit and supple tannins. But they will go for 10 to 15 years with no problem. " Usseglio told me that he finds his 2004s a bit austere right now and advises against opening them for another few years. "But that's me," he added, "and I tend to be extremely critical of my own wines. "