2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Saouma Omnia

A blend of 80% Grenache and 10% each Mourvèdre and Syrah, the 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Omnia takes a Burgundian approach, utilizing 100% whole clusters and then ages in barrel for two years without racking before being bottled by gravity, unfined and unfiltered. The result is cedary, with wood spice notes playing a leading role at this stage of the wine's development. Yet there's elegant cherry fruit in the background, and I suspect it will come forward as the wine ages, while remaining essentially delicate and fine-boned. Cellar this for another 2–3 years, then drink it over the following decade.

Vivid ruby color. A complex, deeply perfumed bouquet evokes ripe red and blue fruits, potpourri and smoky minerals, and an exotic Mediterranean spice quality builds as the wine opens up. Shows impressive depth as well as energy on the palate, offering deeply pitched black raspberry, boysenberry and lavender pastille flavors that slowly firm up and become spicier on the back half. Finishes sappy, gently tannic and extremely long, leaving suave spice and floral notes behind.

The 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Omnia comes from multiple terroirs in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and is another fresh, elegant, yet textured wine from Mounir. Violets, exotic flowers, blueberries, cherries, and passion fruit notes all emerge from this beautifully textured, seamless 2017. It has good acidity, excellent purity of fruit, and nicely integrated acidity. Burgundy-based Mounir Saouma continues to make exotic, singular wines from his cellar located north of Orange. The estate likes to include lots of press wine, keep wine on skins for years, and bottle unfined and unfiltered.