The tiny production 2015 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Da Capo is a powerhouse and unquestionably one of the top wines in the vintage. Compared to the 2010 by Laurence, it offers a stacked, full-bodied, incredibly concentrated feel as well as a blockbuster bouquet of blackcurrants, tapenade, cured meats, garrigue, and assorted Provençal street market-like aromas and flavors. It doesn’t have the sheer volume or flamboyant character of the 2016 (which I think is a better wine) but is deep, straight, and as classic as it gets. Hide bottles for 3-4 years, count yourself lucky, and enjoy them over the following 2-3 decades.

As I reported last year, the 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee da Capo is impressive. While it's less flamboyantly aromatic than the Cuvee Reservee, it's more powerful and concentrated. Full-bodied and rich, it's loaded with potent raspberry fruit and silky tannins and boasts a finish that won't stop. Hints of roasted meat, lavender and thyme add complexity to the waves of fruit, which wash gently across the palate, exhibiting a lovely soft touch.

Made only in exceptional vintages, the Cuvée da Capo is a powerful, deeply nuanced wine pulsating with fruit and earth complexities. Black-cherry and red-plum flavors are alluring and ripe yet tinged by veins of moss, smoke and fur. It's soft and silky on the palate yet composed. The finish is long and lifted. Gorgeous already it will improve through 2030 and hold further.