2016 Gigondas Clos des Tourelles

Aged entirely in foudres, the 2016 Gigondas Clos des Tourelles is an amazing effort that may equal Beaucastel's Châteauneuf-du-Pape this vintage. You taste all the components—raspberries, cherries, tree bark, blueberries and spice—but they also merge together seamlessly into a wine that's full-bodied, rich and long yet weightless and supremely agile. Yes, there's early-drinking appeal, but it should age easily through 2035 or so.

As with the 2017, the 2016 Gigondas Clos des Tourelles comes from vines inside the village. It's noticeably deeper in color than the La Gille and gives up a huge bouquet of blueberries, violets, smoked duck, and crushed rocks. Deep, full-bodied, concentrated, and multi-dimensional, it has building tannin and a huge finish. It needs time, but wow, what a wine. Hats off to the Perrin family for this utterly sensational wine. One of the old guards of the region, Château de Beaucastel is nevertheless one of the most progressive and forward-thinking estates out there. They have a wealth of old vine Mourvèdre planted in the northern part of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and have purchased heavily in the cooler appellation of Gigondas. They’ve broken the lineup into their Château de Beaucastel releases for the estate wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and several additional cuvées released under their Famille Perrin label. Looking at the 2016s, these wines remind me of how the 2001s tasted on release. They are some of the finest wines in the vintage as well as ever made at the estate. These are classic, concentrated, yet perfectly balanced wines that will benefit from bottle age. In contrast, the 2017s are also brilliant but more forward and charming, and I suspect the preponderance of clay soils at this estate helped dramatically with keeping the vines ripening grapes as opposed to shutting down during this hot, dry vintage.

Deep ruby. A highly perfumed, complex bouquet evokes ripe, red and dark berries, apricot and exotic spices. Fleshy and sweet in character, offering pliant black raspberry, boysenberry and floral pastille flavors that become more lively as the wine opens up. Plays richness off of finesse with a steady hand and finishes very long and sweet, with supple tannins sneaking in late.