2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Colombis Rouge Famille Isabel Ferrando (St. Prefert)

Tasted out of bottle, the 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Colombis is a thrilling Grenache that offers both richness and elegance. Awesome notes of currant, blackberries, garrigue, and crushed flowers all flow to a full-bodied wine that has ultra-fine tannins, not a hard edge to be found, incredible purity, and a great, great finish. It's a riveting example of Grenache that can be drunk today or cellared for 10-15 years.

Glistening magenta. A complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe red and blue fruits, potpourri and incense, along with smoky mineral and exotic spice topnotes. Sweet and expansive on the palate, offering deeply concentrated yet surprisingly energetic boysenberry, Chambord, floral pastille and spicecake flavors that slowly tighten up on the back half. The strikingly long, floral- and spice-driven finish shows superb delineation and fine-grained, harmonious tannins.

Ripe and friendly, with an expressive core of raspberry, plum and cherry pâte de fruit flavors streaming through, laced with anise hints and supported by a well-embedded graphite streak. Shows juicy energy throughout. Best from 2020 through 2040.

The 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Colombis, sourced (as always) from three parcels of old Grenache vines, shows more oak than I would have expected and some chewy tannins on the finish. There's plenty of ripe berry fruit and ample weight and concentration, so if the wood and tannins integrate and soften, my rating could look stingy in a few years' time 2021-2030.