Saturated dark ruby. Nose like a fruit essence: blackberry and blueberry liqueur, licorice, pepper, Provencal herbs, and hints of more exotic fruits. A wine of extreme unctuousity, virtually too large for the mouth. Suggestion of marc, but with sappy fruits and great solid underlying structure. The tannins saturate the palate on the peppery finish. Very much in the style of Bonneau rarely made Cuvee Speciale. This wine took nearly two years to finish fermenting. Paul Feraud told me he feared that the alcohol would burn, that there would be too much residual sugar, and that the wine would show signs of premature oxidation. But in fact this headspinner (and I mean that in the purest, Linda Blair sense) boasts great surmaturite without quite descending into madness.

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The debut release of 1998 Cuvee da Capo (made from incredibly low yields of 90% Grenache and 10% the other twelve permitted varietals) is profound. The color is a dense, thick-looking, ruby/garnet/purple. The aromas begin slowly, but then roar from the glass like an out-of-control locomotive, offering up a smorgasbord of candied black fruits, pepper, garrigue, earth, and truffles. Enormously thick and rich, but, amazingly, not heavy, this blockbuster, full-bodied Chateauneuf du Pape is still youthful, but should age gracefully for three decades. The Cuvee da Capo is frightfully expensive by Chateauneuf du Pape standards, but if quality like this existed in Burgundy, consumers would be willing to pay $500 a bottle. Think it over!

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Offers a rare level of concentration, yet its layers of black currant, fig, coffee, bittersweet cocoa, iron, loam and blood orange are remarkabkly defined and accessible, even though the structure is there for serious cellaring. As pure an expression of traditional Châteauneuf as you're likely to find. 500 cases made.

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Apparently there was a 'good bottle? of number 6, and my tasting experience w/ the good bottle was a fleeting one (Posner chugged and slurped away my opportunity at greatness) so all I was left w/ was the clumsily massive, disjointed mess of hot Amarone garbage that I might as well have used to degrease the engine of my car. It?s a shame too, as I?d imagine only the devilish of characters could allow a Pegau Da Capo to be cooked to this degree. Well hey, the body was nice, just wasn'tquite the ride I?d hoped for