2009 Chateau de Beaucastel Rouge, Chateauneuf-du-Pape

With beautiful, spicy, mature sweet red and black fruits as well as notes of peppered meats and some wild, gamey notes, the 2009 Châteauneuf Du Pape is medium to full-bodied, silky, and pure on the palate, with ultra-fine, mostly resolved tannins and a long, graceful finish that has classic Beaucastel complexity and nuance. This stunning 2009 is perfect for drinking over the coming decade or more. Drink: 2025-2034.

The bright fruit notes and generous, accommodating palate, with its sexy curves and slinky style, suggests a modern interpretation that belies the deep-rooted 50-year-old vines providing these grapes. A winning, complex blend of 30% Grenache, 30% Mouvedre, 10% Syrah and a mad mix of Vaccarèse, Terret Noir, Muscardin, Clairette, Picpoul, Picardan, Bourboulenc, Roussanne, Counoise and Cinsault is aged in oak foudres for a year before being bottled. The result is a luscious, generous bowl of plums, blackcurrants, liquorice and fruitcake flavours. It has settled gently, the palate being soft, svelte and curvy, all wrapped up in silky tannins.

(30% each of grenache and mourvedre and 10% each of counoise and syrah, with the balance spread across the other nine permitted varieties): Bright ruby. Perfumed, expressive aromas of red and dark berry preserves, smoky herbs and lavender, with a touch of licorice adding depth. Fleshy and supple in texture, offering intense black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors lifted by a spicy quality. Shows the richness of the vintage but carries no excess fat. The finish lingers with impressive tenacity and echoes the floral and smoke notes.

Bricky garnet. Aromatic and invitingly complex and savoury but with a little more fruit sweetness than in the 2003. Fragrant with pepper and spice and still the evidence of red fruits. Some dried tomato and cigar box. Meaty sweetness in the mouth, spreads across the palate, still has firmly chewy tannins. Long finish. (JH)

Juicy redcurrant and raspberry fruit with charred meat and earth showing complexity, and a long, fragrant persistence with attractive juniper and liquorice character. Long, layered, engaging, and justifies the weight and heat thanks to powerful fruit concentration. (RH)