($105) Dark ruby. Powerful and exotically perfumed bouquet of raspberry, anise, garrigue and cured tobacco. Rich cherry-cola and blackberry preserve flavors threaten to overwhelm the palate but are reined in by zesty minerality. Supple tannins build and carry through a long, sappy finish, with the cassis flavor repeating. Very young but packed with seductively pure fruit.

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The 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Deus-Ex Machina is utter perfection in the glass ' an awesome wine both comparable to and eclipsing the otherworldly 2003. Saturated purple to the rim, with an extraordinary nose of incense, fruitcake, blackberry and black cherry notes with some subtle roasted herbs, roast beef, smoke, and licorice, massive fruit concentration, extraordinary intensity, unreal purity and harmony, and a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, and alcohol, this is a tour de force in winemaking and certainly one of the most compelling Chateauneuf du Papes I have ever tasted. The length goes on well past a minute, and the wine should age effortlessly for 25-30+ years. The tannins are formidable according to consulting oenologist Philippe Cambie, but they are nearly obscured by the wine's remarkable concentration and intensity. This is a riveting wine.

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A lush, modern style, with silky layers of raspberry ganache and spice leading the way for notes of linzer torte, hoisin sauce and incense. Yet the accessiblity is deceptive, as this really picks up grip and steam, leaving a lingering note of Port reduction on the velvety, black fruit-filled finish.

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